Poor Asians exploited in informal employment sector

Jose Mario Bautista Maximiano

Demonstrators destroy an effigy representing Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte during a protest to mark Labor Day in Manila. (Photo: AFP)

The International Labor Organization considers garment manufacturing in Asia as one despicable part of the bigger picture of the informal sector.

Moons ago, I read a story shared by Koon Berkbandee, who was a home-based garment worker residing in Bangkok with her husband, two sons, a daughter-in-law and a grandchild. She and her family were relocated to a state housing project on Bangkok's outskirts that provided socialized and low-cost housing.

Diagnosed with stage II cancer, she was unable to earn as she needed to travel to hospital for regular check-ups. Workers in the informal sector are usually confronted with challenges in accessing health services — and Koon knew this by experience.

It scary to think about the future of people like Koon Berkbandee and her family. Imagine the future of a hundred million or more unemployed and underemployed people without security of tenure and social and medical benefits?

Article 23 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1946 provides that everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favorable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment. But today it has apparently no meaning to hundreds of millions of able-bodied and skilled Asians.

Since the beginning of this millennium, we have seen informal workers dominating the Asian labor market. Covid-19 made it worse. Citizens employed in the informal sector and micro-enterprises in several Asian countries belonging to the poor and near-poor income levels have experienced hunger since the pandemic began in 2020.

Timor-Leste, Bangladesh, China, the Philippines, Indonesia and even Hong Kong had a 5 percent unemployment rate, while joblessness in India and Brunei was worse at 8 percent in 2021

During the pandemic, the Southeast Asian economy, in general, went into near recession when trade and businesses shed workers, increasing the unemployment rate and making the poor poorer.

Timor-Leste, Bangladesh, China, the Philippines, Indonesia and even Hong Kong had a 5 percent unemployment rate, while joblessness in India and Brunei was worse at 8 percent in 2021.

The unemployment rate is defined as the percentage of adults in the labor force who do not have jobs. It is not the percentage of the total adult population without jobs. In Southeast Asia, it means hundreds of millions of able adults who are not regularly employed.

On the other hand, there is underemployment, which is sometimes known as informal work or non-standard employment. It is defined as a condition in which people in the labor force do not work full-time or take jobs that do not reflect their actual training and are inadequate to meet their financial needs.

In the post-pandemic period, listening to world leaders giving their uplifting rhetoric and hope-building promises when they declare that every adult has the right to earn a living through a meaningful occupation, a job worthy of a free and thinking person, is a useless exercise, if not pathetic.

We know that the pandemic has actually revealed the weak foundations of the labor and legal systems in the region.

In the post-pandemic period, the employment outlook doesn't look good, except for Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, Singapore, Vietnam and Japan with a less than 2 percent unemployment rate. They belong to a very few lucky nations where their economies will likely rebound and are expected to expand, considerably decreasing the number of jobless adults.

Be that as it may, in Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam, informal jobs in the hospitality, construction and food services sectors have increased to 99 percent as the informal sector in wholesale and retail trade got bigger.

From what we see, hundreds of millions of Asians moved from full-time jobs to non-standard jobs and other forms of underemployment over the last decade. In Indonesia, Laos, Thailand and the Philippines today, senior citizens also belong to the unfortunate ones in the informal sector due to the absence of alternatives to earn a living and support their families.

Without full employment, how can a breadwinner live a life worthy of human dignity and at the same time adequately support their family? 

In Southeast Asia, the name of the game is cheap labor. In order to survive and for others to attract foreign investors, the region provides the cheapest labor possible.

In other cases, contractualization, which is a form of underemployment, has become a new efficient scheme that allows many capitalists in Asia to increase their workforce with ease according to market demands. This translates to maximization of profits for most businesses but, for the workers, this system denies them the security and benefits of a regular job while being paid very low wages.

The harsh reality appears to contradict the idealism embodied in the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights. On the part of the job seekers, who are almost always breadwinners, it is a choice between joblessness and underemployment, a quick option between hunger and at-least-there's-hope-for-survival.

As it is, informal jobs and underemployment are socially irresponsible situations. Without full employment, how can a breadwinner live a life worthy of human dignity and at the same time adequately support their family? Will they be able to provide their children the opportunities to finish college? Will they have the chance to build and own a modest home for their family, to save for contingencies, emergencies and old age?

One ethical consideration is that the basic right to adequate work and full employment is essentially attached to other fundamental rights such as the right to life and the right to a decent living.

It all boils down to the metaphysical nobility of human dignity, that labor is sacred because it is created in the image of God, and therefore anything less than full-time employment is sacrilegious.

Accordingly, Koon Berkbandee's and every citizen's right to earn a legitimate means of livelihood entails a solemn duty on the part of the business sector and the government to provide ample opportunities for adequate work, security of tenure, and social and medical benefits.

When do we end worrying for the likes of Koon Berkbandee and a hundred million more Asians? Will it ever end?

* Jose Mario Bautista Maximiano is the author of 'GLOBAL BUSINESS ETHICS FOR FILIPINOS of the New Millennium' (Anvil, 2001) and 'CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY: Basic Principles and Best Practices' (De La Salle University Press, 2004). The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official editorial position of UCA News.