Chiz Escudero

I am calling for a strict implementation of labor laws. Workers, including security guards whose rights are being violated, are not peons but partners of capital in the great experiment to build a just and compassionate society.

The government and civil society should array themselves on the side of workers in their continuing struggle to win validation of their right to bargain collectively for living salaries and wages and other benefits.

But capital must take the initiative. Today’s minimum wage is far below the poverty line, and that there is an urgent need to address the problem. Manufacturers can afford to pay the right compensation, as long as their workforce is productive on the factory floor. However, there is need to revisit VAT and other oppressive taxes, which, coupled with the high cost of electricity, make the firms uncompetitive.

Peter F. Drucker, the American management expert, said the primary purpose of a corporation is to produce goods and provide services. Profit is essential only in so far as it enables the corporation to carry out its responsibility to the nation and, in the case of multinationals, to the whole world.

I acknowledge that a balance must be struck between the rights of labor and the need of capital to recover its investments. But the workers are generally on the losing side in the negotiation held supposedly to reconcile their interests with those of management.

It is for this reason that laws have been passed to protect workers, including security guards whose rights are being violated, whether temporary, permanent, or contractual.

Almost a hundred years ago, Henry Ford raised the minimum daily wage of workers in his car assembly line from $2.34 to $5, a revolutionary concept that did not sit well with commerce and industry at the time.

But to the industrialist, paying workers more would enable them to afford the cars they themselves were producing, and that ultimately would redound to the benefit of the company.

It is said that a corporation does well by doing good. And doing good means looking after the interests of its workers and of the community where it operates and of the nation in general, with regard to health and education, law and order, and the environment.

I am dismissing the argument that the corporation must be left alone to do what it does best, and that is producing goods or providing services. A group is as much a part of society as an individual, and that as such it cannot operate in a vacuum.

This entry was posted on Friday, May 4th, 2007 at 3:02 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.