Workers and wages

I took these photos on Labor Day, 1 May 2017. I had just started fiddling with my camera, so I’m pretty sure the photos are not outstanding.

Nevertheless, the issues I tried to portray with these photos are as relevant today as they were in 2017. In the Philippines, minimum wages are barely enough for workers and their families to make ends meet. Rising price of basic goods and services compound the problems faced by Filipino workers and their families. To top it all off, the government allows labor contractualization, a policy where workers get laid off and rehired by companies every five months or so. This, so that workers do not become regular employees and companies do not have to pay workers additional wages and benefits they are legally entitled to.

The government under Rodrigo Duterte promised to end labor contractualization when he became president in 2016, yet he did not do so in 2017, nor in 2018, nor this year.