196
-
ISSA'S
MI. Hizon then indicated the possibility of strengthening the activities in the Asian region. A good example of such an indication would be the ISSA's round-table meeting on organisation of medical care in Asia and Oceania, which would be held in Quezon City immediately after the closing of the seminar. He invited all the participants to attend the round-table meeting.
He recalled the discussions which took place at the ISSA's Third Regional Conference for Asia held five years ago in the Philippines. At that time, the Philippines had not a medical care programme under social security. But now, the Philippines had such a programme for two years. He remembered also in the Second Regional Conference of ISSA in India, one of the topics of discussion was the provident fund and pension system. At that meeting in 1965 a number of delegates informed that it would be advisable to convert a provident fund scheme into a pension insurance for the protection of the aged or those that retired. He was happy to learn that India had introduced a family pension scheme in conjunction with the provident fund in 1972. Thus Mr. Hizon hoped that the seminar would be very fruitful to many of the Asian countries, because some of the countries at the moment did not have social security in any form or some others had caly provident funds which could not take care of the risk of old age.
3.
Speech delivered by Hon. Blas F. Ople, Secretary of Labor, the Government of the Philippines
represented
After welcoming the participants and officials of the seminar, the Secretary of Labor recalled that only recently the Government asked for the services of the ILO to convert the old Workmen's Compensation Law into a modern social security scheme. The ILO's services were very helpful. Somewhere in this Law the ILO would recognise the stamp of its contribution but there was no question that this was Law written entirely by Filipinos for themselves, which was as it should be.
a
Mr. Ople was glad to note that there was all over Asia a resurgent interest in social security. Malaysia enacted a Social Security Law; Indonesia was right now developing its own social security legislation, and the Republic of Korea was reported to be now engaged in a major effort to establish a social security system. The Republic of Singapore, of course, was one of the best developed social security schemes in the whole region.
man.
а
He emphasised that the more successful the economic development policies, the more urgent was the pressure to establish a social security scheme for the working That was the reason why the strongest pressures for social security schemes were today being felt in such countries as Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Thailand and Indonesia. As a matter of fact, in such countries where foreign investments played major role in catalysing economic growth, the working people were increasingly asking the question: who benefits from foreign investments? This proved to be in some instances an explosive question. It ignited riots in the streets and threatened the stability of régimes. Granting that the right kind of foreign investments created job opportunities still the necessary institutional framework for a wider diffusion of income and welfare might be entirely lacking. A social security scheme was one such framework. A system of Labour Standards Laws, enforced by an adequate la bour administration machinery was another.
Trade unions functioning as collective bargaining agents for their members were another.
The Secretary of Labor said that such institutions, moreover, had the effect of arming the workers with a charter of human rights in an othervise completely different world of goods, money and power. These were the means in fact by which we could civilise the forces of progress and bend them to our own service. This was the way even a working man could enjoy genuine human dignity at the workplace.
MI.
If these were indeed the requisites of human dignity and democracy at Work, Ople asked why all countries did not possess them in a degree much more meaningful than those they had at present: to restrict the question for the mcment to social security, why all countries did not possess well-established social security systems. Why should there be any misgiving or reservations at all about the establishment of social security services even in the developing countries? Be felt it necessary to acknowledge the fact that there are in the poor countries strong misgivings on this matter based on what were believed to be very sensible grounds. Although everybody stood for social security in principle, often it was objected to in practice on the ground that the economy could not yet afford social security;
that this was a luxury which could only be earned through further
E-1195-2L:5
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.