In a time when wages barely meet living standards and sustainable employment remains elusive, charter change (cha-cha) is poised to worsen workers’ conditions.

The P13,264 monthly minimum wage in the National Capital Region falls way below the P26,049 that a family of five should earn to live decently. Yet, worker coalitions’ clarion call for a P750 across-the-board wage hike remains unrealized. On top of this, employment has steadily dipped, most recently from 66.6 percent in December 2023 to 61.1 percent in January this year.

These are the employment numbers cha-cha vows to revitalize by facilitating increased foreign direct investments (FDIs) through the permission of full foreign ownership on key sectors. However, the manufacturing industry’s FDI track record foils this promise. Though the annual FDI average in manufacturing ballooned from USD286 million from 2000 to 2004 to USD728 million from 2015 to 2019, the sector’s share in employment plunged from 10 percent to 8.5 percent throughout the same period.

Worse, special economic zones (SEZs) that encourage FDIs bear higher incidences of substandard work conditions. For one, gross negligence of fire safety standards led to the 2017 fires of the headquarters of House Technology Industries and New City Commercial Center—both operating under SEZs. To boot, some corporations operating in SEZs pay workers as low as 80 percent of the minimum wage. Employees choose not to demand higher compensation for fear of dismissal, organization Play the Game found in 2016.

Cha-cha proponents play deaf to manufacturing’s cautionary tale: unregulated FDIs clash with workers’ demands, with wage hike being among the first to fall. Without strong domestic industries, “foreign investors offer labor that is cheapest, most repressed, and therefore most denied of rights,” said the Center for Trade Union and Human Rights in its January statement. Among these rights made vulnerable is Article 13, Section 3 of the Constitution, which enshrines rights to self-organization and livable wages.

FDIs will only aid national development if they are regulated, coupled with the state’s focus on refining local industries capable of providing a sustainable decent living to Filipinos. Wage hikes, such as the P100 increase for minimum wage earners floated in the House of Representatives, can revitalize workers’ economic participation and activity, according to IBON Foundation. This is to be reinforced with policies that combat unemployment, contractualization, and labor exploitation. When these are realized, the labor sector can face the foreign scourge on negotiating terms, so that FDIs can work toward workers’ favor rather than foment total foreign capture. ●

First published in the March 15, 2024 print edition of the Collegian.