A medical worker administers a BioNtech-Pfizer Covid-19 coronavirus vaccine to a worker in a mall in Manila. (Photo: AFP)
Labor unions in the Philippines have urged President Rodrigo Duterte to ramp up the government’s Covid-19 vaccination rate in order to help revive the economy and get millions of jobless people back to work.
As of last month, 3.3 million people were out of work, according to the latest government figures released on Feb. 9.
The Department of Labor and Employment said the high number was a result of the pandemic’s economic fallout.
“Over three million Filipinos are rendered jobless due to the continuing scourge of the coronavirus which has resulted in thousands of medium and large-scale companies to cease operations or declare bankruptcy,” labor secretary Silvestre Bello III told reporters on Feb. 10.
The Nagkaisa Labor Coalition, however, said the government should not lay sole blame on the pandemic but the government’s response to it as well.
It said a slow vaccination rate was maintaining a high level of daily infections thereby preventing many employers from resuming normal operations.
According to a health department report this week only 54 percent of the total Philippine population of more than 100 million has been fully vaccinated.
Meanwhile, 3,651 new cases were recorded on Feb 9.
Many casual workers or those with short-term contracts are losing out by being forced into quarantine for 14 days if found to be infected, the group added.
Allowing firms to bar un-vaccinated workers was also adding to the high unemployment figures it said.
“We … urge the Duterte administration to address unemployment by first giving jabs to all working-age people, particularly booster jabs,” the coalition’s chairman Sonny Matula told UCA News.
Matula said the swift distribution of vaccines was key to protecting both the labor force and jobs.
The labor group also called for free Covid test kits so as not to place a further economic burden on workers.
“The cost of PCR or antigen tests should be shouldered by the government, not workers,” Matula said.
Father Jerry Gaspar of Legaspi Diocese said the ability of workers to earn for their families was dependent on vaccines.
“If they catch the virus, they incur 14 working days without pay. So that means they will not have an income. Companies can close as well because there are no customers. So, vaccines and employment are clearly linked,” Father Gaspar told UCA News.