Today, October 7, 2008, is designated by UN as “World Day for Decent Work”. For all Filipino workers toiling in the Philippines and other countries, we all have one aim and that is to lift ourselves and our family from the pangs poverty and hunger. It is our aspiration in our working lives to have a decent work that is productive and provide fair income. We long for security in the workplace that we can not be fired unjustifiably. We aspire for a social protection that will help us when we are old. We look for decent job that provide us personal development and an environment where we can express our concerns without being penalized. These are what decent work means to all of us.
But sadly the global financial crisis will result in tossing the meaning of decent work and making us accept or be grateful in having any kind of work at all. Our working class is stuck in the survival mode since the founding of the country.
We need to pass the survival mode and jump to creative/inventive mode in order for us to have a decent work that will help us develop self-respect.
Having any kind of work just to survive is a survival mode hence not a good work because it does not bring self-respect. It does not give a degree of autonomy.
I am praying for a day when all of Filipinos are enjoying the creative/inventive era where Filipinos are not treated by their employers as a resource or a commodity that can be manipulated.
(you may e-mail the author at lenra1967@yahoo.com)
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