PH Businesses, government agencies and labor groups exploring portable benefits
for informal workers

12 May  2023 – MBC gathered representatives from various government agencies, labor groups, and business associations in a series of discussions focused on portable benefits in April. All three sessions aimed to explore the concept of portable benefits and its potential impact on the Philippine labor market.

“There are now many companies that have independent contractors who have skills difficult to find. When a company uses social benefits as leverage, it can easily hire and retain these workers,” said Director General of the Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP) Jose Moya during the session with other labor groups.

ECOP, like other labor organizations, sees portable benefits to ensure financial protection for non-regular workers in case of sickness and risk of occupational hazard. Portable benefits are worker benefits that are not tied to a particular job or employer, and can be carried over from job to job, regardless of whether the worker is employed full-time, part-time, or as a freelancer. This can include health insurance, retirement savings, and other forms of financial security.

The FGDs were attended by representatives from the Institute for Labor Studies (ILS), the Employees’ Compensation Commission (ECC), Solidarity Center, Federation of Free Workers (FFW), the United Delivery Riders of the Philippines (RIDERS/SENTRO), the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) Industry Employees Network (BIEN), the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP), and the Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP). The series of discussions are part of the upcoming MBC study on Portable Benefits which will be published in the third quarter of 2023.

The study on Portable Benefits conducted by MBC, under the Philippine Sustainability Action Project, is led by Project Lead Jesi Blantucas and Eunice Tanilon.