The Martial Law anniversary and the Labor Code

Today is the forty-first anniversary of Martial Law and 2013 is the thirty-ninth year of the Labor Code. It is thus important for the labor front to ponder seriously on the state of our labor laws and jurisprudence and to examine its provisions, in relation to contemporary realities and challenges. The Labor Code was a Martial Law legislation. It is a Presidential Decree. It was made and promulgated by the constitutional dictator, assisted only by a brilliant Minister of Labor. But the glaring fact is that, the socio-economic milieu in 1972, when Martial Rule was imposed, and in 1974 when the Labor Code was made into law, were totally different from the globalized world today. The Labor Code is a complete historical piece that has totally lost its relevance, and thus urgently needs to be abrogated. A new one must be put in place.

In the seventies, there was no Internet, no websites, no laptop, no iPods. The tablet then was a cure for colds. There were no ATM's, no fax machines, there were no cell phones even. There were no call centers and women were not even allowed to work at night. The Labor Code was a decree that did not pass any legislative deliberation, for the simple reason that Congress was abolished.It was hastily crafted to suit the desires of the Martial Law aristocrat and so formulated by the dominant executive that concentrated all powers in the Office of the President and the Labor Minister. The employers could not suspend much less dismiss employees, without first asking prior clearance from the Ministry of Labor. Strikes were abolished and all disputes were subject to compulsory arbitration. The world in the seventies is totally different from our world today. And so, why are we using the same old, outdated law?

The attempts to amend the Labor Code, after the Martial Regime was dismantled, were all disjointed, intermittent, and lacking in clear and unequivocal purpose. Even the RA 6715, the so-called Herrera-Veloso Law of 1989, enacted by a democratic Congress, during the first post-martial rule administration,has not made a significant improvement on our labor laws.  Notwithstanding its lofty declarations of goals, and its many well-intentioned provisions, that law has failed to put rhyme and reason into the Labor Code. All the other amendments were "topsyturvy", half-hazard, segmented alterations that are lacking in a unifying theme and over-all philosophy. We need to abrogate this law and enact one that is worthy of the compelling imperatives of the twenty-first century. The sooner we do it the better will be our chance to keep up with the global world.

In the threshold of this new millennium, we need to keep pace with the dizzying velocity of changes in our environment. The modern economic scientist, Alvin Toffler, in his masterpieces "FUTURE SHOCK", "POWERSHIFT" and "THE THIRD WAVE" has warned the world in the same decade that we adopted both martial law and the Labor Code, that indeed these rapid and massive changes in technology, would come about precisely at these times. It stands to reason then that our country should have made the corresponding adjustments in our socio-economic arrangements, in our political and legal systems some ten or even twenty years ago. Our Labor Code, for one, should have been overhauled two decades ago. We have entered the global arena unprepared with our fundamentals. The failure to improve our labor laws is one of our monumental historical errors.

The time has come, therefore, that we should reverse our mistakes and put our Labor Code in order. First, we should abandon the policy to promote outward labor migration. The institutionalized diaspora of our human capital is an anachronism in today's world. It has ruined our capability to compete in the global arena and has destroyed the family, the basic foundation of the nation. Then we should put an end to the legalistic gobbledygook in our labor relations system. Why does it take 20 years for compulsory arbitration to settle a simple labor dispute? We should remove dispute settlement from the control of giant law firms and put it to the grievance and voluntary arbitration systems. We should integrate our education system and the needs of our economy and industry so that our manpower training shall be supportive of our economic and industrial development imperatives.

Today, as we recall the mistakes of Martial Rule, let us realize the urgency of changing our labor laws. The Labor Code is the last vestige of a constitutional dictatorship.The sooner we dismantle it, the better is our chance to win in the global arena of a totally different and rapidly-changing world.