The state and employment relations in the Philippines

Abstract

Employment relations in the Philippines feature significant formal rights and protections for workers on the one hand, and feeble enforcement of these by the state on the other. This is not explained by weak state capacities, separate from political logics. Hence, with some modifications to accommodate the character of the Philippine state, this article applies Hyman’s conceptualisation of ‘three broad and often contradictory’ logics to state power across the areas of labour standards, labour relations and labour policy participation. Across these, legitimation concerns – both domestic and international – have shaped much of the formal architecture of employment relations in the Philippines, whilst pacification and accumulation priorities tend to underlie lax state enforcement of labour standards, employer impunity with respect to unfair labour practices, extrajudicial violence against leftists, as well as the legal restrictions on strikes. International actors – the United States and the International Labour Organisation – have also determined the formal architecture, but in ways that stress associational freedoms over associational strength. This has left the mainstream of the labour movement with significant organisational interests in the status quo, despite its attendant weaknesses.