Assessing the Extent of Precarious Work Arrangements in Tuna Catching: The Case of General Santos City, Philippines

Attaining global competitiveness is a major challenge in the business world nowadays. This challenge posed the need to produce goods and services with the highest quality and lowest cost of production. The need to reduce labor cost led to the adaption of precarious work arrangements (PWA). However, it is worth noting that PWA have existed in tuna catching even before the offshoot of the globalized economy. This research aimed to study the extent by which PWA is applied, the terms and conditions of employment, and other coping mechanism developed by both labor and management. Key informant interviews were done with three groups of catchers composed of piado (the vessel captain, master fisherman), assistant engine mechanic, pokotero (net maintainer), bosero (area checker/ guard), fishermen (fish hauler and crew), kusinero (cook), and other utility workers. The results revealed that the scheme is covered by a contract between the master fisherman (vessel captain) and vessel owner. There is no fixed rate of compensation. Wages and benefits would depend on the volume and value of the catch. There is no security of tenure, minimal fringe benefits, and high risk. Workers mobility (from one group to another) is dependent on the choice and reputation of the piado. Additional benefits were awarded by vessel owner to maintain loyalty of the workers. It is recommended that the contract of engagement must be improved to include workers protection, welfare, and insurance to reduce risk taking

Assessing the Role of Cooperative in Resolving Labor Issues in Tuna Catching, General Santos City, Philippines

Cooperatives are envisioned both as a social and economic enterprise. In the Philippine setting, cooperatives were organized to serve as labor provider for various industries, under the scheme of agency hiring, or declaring the hired workers as member/co-owner of the cooperative. The study aims to examine the economic and social gains, as well as the risk taking of the members and business partners. In particular, an assessment of the social gains (e.g., resolving labor issues, vulnerability of workers to exploitation, and workers capacitation) will be analyzed to probe the cooperative as a venue for workers’ empowerment. Key informant interviews were conducted with the officers and members of two cooperatives: (1) type A – workers’ cooperative organized by an agency (labor provider) and (2) type B – workers’ cooperative organized by the workers themselves. The findings revealed that the type B cooperative generated more economic and social gains for both members and business partners, while the type A cooperative delivered less. Type A cooperatives did not resolve the labor issues while type B cooperatives enhanced worker entrepreneurship, capacity building, and participation with increased compensation and benefits. It is recommended that concerned government agencies must strictly monitor the operations of cooperatives. Business partners must also be encouraged to deal with cooperatives who are organized to serve the interest of the workers

Assessing the Employment Conditions and Patterns of Help-outs among Selected Agrarian Reform Cooperatives in the Banana Industry

Employment is one of the key concepts that support every country’s economic activity. Its significance and contribution affect key players in all sectors, as it is vital in production, distribution, and consumption of commodities. Among all the industries, agriculture takes the largest share when it comes to labor force participation. The agricultural sector of the Philippines is composed of informally employed workers who face various issues in hiring, contracts, worker pay, workloads, and etc. These informally employed workers include “help-outs” who work in the Agrarian Reform Cooperatives (ARCs) managed by the Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries (ARBs). Due to the nature of work, these workers engage in different working arrangements which determine their farm setting. Thus, this is an exploratory study conducted to assess the working conditions and patterns of help-outs employed in the selected ARCs, namely SFARBEMCO, AMS-MARBEMCO, and AMS-KARBEMCO, in Davao del Norte. A total of 103 help-outs were interviewed. Linear and logit regression were both employed to test significance of relationships. The results show that most of the help-outs in the ARCs are well-off. Significant factors that affect their probability of being well-off include gender, rating of happiness, employment category, cooperative, and relationship to their ARB. However, issues identified in the employment patterns include ambiguous employer -employee relationship, payment of working slots, precarious contracts, unreasonable pay, and lack of social security

Contract Farming and Leaseback Arrangement of Banana in Calinan District, Davao City: ARB’s Contract Choice, Impact, and Gains

The study assessed the contribution of contract farming of banana to the agrarian reform beneficiaries as an alternative to leaseback arrangement in Calinan District, Davao City. Specifically, the study aimed to characterize and compare the contractual schemes of contract growing and leaseback arrangement using the adapted growership model from the contract farming framework, identify the factors that influenced ARBs decision to engage in contract farming, and identify other potential gains that can be derived from growership other than economic gains. The analysis utilized primary data that were gathered through surveys and interviews among ARBs who were engaged in such contractual arrangements. Results showed that contract growing as governed by production and sales agreement is focused on banana production that involves the participation of growers (ARBs) who produced either individually or collectively through agricultural cooperative, while leaseback arrangement operates under land use agreement. The amount of land rent is P18,000 per ha per yearr with P500 annual increase. Using econometric approach, education and farm size were found to be significant factors that influenced ARBs decision to engage in contract growing with 70% probability of participation based on Logit regression. In terms of social gains such as self-fulfillment and confidence, there is no significant difference on this in both contractual arrangements. Moreover, the formation of cooperatives in both ventures is essential for it to become effective. The success of every contractual agreement largely depends on the collaboration of stakeholders. Having this, there should be an enhancement and strengthening of cooperatives that will organize ARBs through which collaborative farming can be obtained

Does Microfinancing improve Farm Productivity? Empirical Evidence on Rice farming in San Francisco, Agusan del Sur, Philippines

Poverty remains to be the highest in agricultural areas in the Philippines. To alleviate this problem, capital empowerment through microfinancing was among the government’s program in the rural areas including the municipality of San Francisco, Agusan del Sur. A total of 95 rice farmers with a 10% margin of error were interviewed to draw conclusions on the impact of microfinancing to farm productivity. Econometric modeling was employed. The production data were fitted using five standard production functions namely; (1) neoclassical, (2) neoclassical with interaction, (3) Cobb-Douglas like, (4) Transcendental and the (5) modified transcendental models. Transcendental function best fits the data with Microfinancing significantly improving farm productivity by 39%. Despite this positive impact, only 34% of these farmers were availing from formal institutions and only 18% took advantage during the last cropping. Nonetheless, it is highly recommended to strengthen the microfinance program in the Philippines by offering extension works on the benefit of Microfinancing, offering less stringent application procedure, and ensuring agricultural credits are used on its purpose, thus, improving the plight of the rural farmers