Nine outstanding Filipino blue-collar workers who generated millions in annual savings on production and other costs including additional income for their companies have been cited by CEOs, bankers, and members of the diplomatic corps including those from the church and the public sector in a gathering last week which extolled these workers as models in the efforts to raise the country's labor productivity and capability to compete in the global market, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) today said.

Labor and Employment Secretary Patricia A. Sto. Tomas handed over the trophies to the nine workers chosen by the Rotary Club of Manila (RCM) as The Outstanding Workers of the Republic for 2005 (Tower Awards). The awardees included Nestor Villarmino, a plant mechanic whose ingenuity and innovation enabled his company, the Philippine Phosphate Fertilizer Corp., to save some P17.5 million annually in production and other costs.

The RCM which pioneered such worthy projects as the Boy Scout movement, Community Chest Foundation, Philippine Band of Mercy, and Philippine Safety Council (forerunner of the Safety Organization of the Phils.), is the first Rotary Club in Asia and biggest in the Philippines. Among its members serving as board director is Sto. Tomas' predecessor in the DOLE, Bienvenido Laguesma. The other RCM members are chief executive and operating officers of various local and multi-national corporations, bankers and heads of financial institutions, and members of the diplomatic corps, the church, and government.

Sto. Tomas in a speech before the Rotarians and the Tower awardees noted that the country's labor productivity has grown at modest rates but at levels still below those in other Asian countries.
According to her, labor productivity in 2004 grew only slightly from 2.7 percent in 2003 to 2.9 percent or in constant terms from P35,302 to P36,316. The biggest growth was experienced in industry, from 0.7 percent to 2 percent. Productivity in agriculture also rose from 2.9 percent to 3.4 percent.

The figures may seem small but they show the efforts of our industries and our workers to be more productive, Sto. Tomas said stressing the Tower awardees are wellsprings of inspiration.

This year's crop of Tower awardees, the labor and employment chief said, is a testimony not only to the ultimate goal of achieving increased productivity but also the best in the Filipino workers distinguished in many parts of the world for their remarkable skills, talent, industry, ingenuity, and resourcefulness.

In this regard, Sto. Tomas commended the RCM for exercising their corporate social responsibility by giving recognition to outstanding blue-collar workers adding such recognition promotes globally competitive work standards and inspire workers to bring out their best.

She also noted that the Tower Awards was an indication of a mature environment where the social partners respond positively to the roles expected of them - government to set the policy environment for more investments, business to pursue expansion and in the process create jobs, and workers to contribute rather than derail progress.