Art.

4 “No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be
prohibited in all their forms.”
Art. 23 “Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable
conditions ofwork and to protection against unemployment; everyone, without any
discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work; everyone who works has the right to
just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and hisfamily an existence worthy of
human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of socialprotection”
Art. 24 “Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working
hours and periodic holidays with pay.”

It is in my own opinion that the deprivation of labor rights constitute the biggest problem that the
Philippines have with regards to human rights. As stated in Article 23 of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), “Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of
employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment;
everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work; everyone who
works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an
existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social
protection” And yet, slavery in its most subtle form is very rampant not only to the world of
unprofessionals but more so in the professional world. I am referring to those jobs wherein the
amount of work done is not equal to the compensation received. Employers rely with the firm’s
reputation while the employees , in turn rely with the experience that they will earn if they stay
longer with that firm, not minding the fact that the pay that are getting are just slightly above the
minimum basic wage and with no or little overtime pay.

Article 24 of the UDHR states that “Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including
reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.” However, it is common
knowledge that contractual or job order employees are being paid on a “no work – no pay”
basis. Also, it is disheartening that in one of the Government agencies that I have worked with,
the number of job order employees is more than those which are regularly employed and thus
depriving them of periodic holidays with pay.

Article 4 of the UDHR provides that “No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and
the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.” Despite this, beggars roaming around in
the streets or the news that women and/or children are being subjected to human trafficking
became a common thing for us.

The list for instances which deprives us, Filipinos, with the labor rights should have been
protected by our Government, goes on as long as we are governed by people who manifestly
ignore that these problems exists.a