The Employers’ Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP), established in September 1975, unites employers and their organizations, safeguards and enhances employers’ interest in labour-management relations, including social and economic policy issues, and promotes industrial harmony, social justice and national economic growth. ECOP has a broad-based membership from all sectors of the economy.
The ILO works with ECOP, recently on thrusts that include research and advocacy, training and development, corporate social responsibility and a small and medium-scale enterprise survey.
Some 600 national trade unions, industrial federations and plant-level unions from private and public sectors are registered in the Philippines, although they represent less than 10 per cent of the 38.8 million-strong workforce. Among these are the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP), the Federation of Free Workers (FFW) and the Alliance of Progressive Labor (APL). Their primary concerns include decent work for job seekers and job preservation for the employed.
The ILO works with trade union partners to examine the Labor Code, contractualization and stringent organizing and strike provisions, and involves tripartite constituents in the Decent Work Country Programme through programme work to eliminate child labour, youth unemployment, gender inequality, and discrimination, better regulate labour migration and seek greater social protection and dialogue.