Media practitioners deserve security of tenure, hazard and overtime pay, mandatory additional insurance coverage, plus other job-related benefits as far as Camarines Sur 2nd district Rep. LRay Villafuerte and three fellow solons from the province are concerned.

That's why the Camarines Sur-based lawmakers filed House Bill (HB) No. 304, or the proposed Media Workers’ Welfare Act, in the 19th Congress.

The measure aims to guarantee the rights of media workers to self-organization and additional economic benefits due them in their profession, as well as to create “a safe, protected atmosphere conducive to their productive, free and fruitful work".

“Media workers risk their own lives being exposed to the perils and hazards outdoor just so we can receive our needed information. It is unfortunate that the very same people behind it are usually the ones whose labor rights are ignored, such as those pertaining to security of tenure, hazard pay, night shift differential pay and overtime pay, among others,” Villafuerte and his co-authors said in HB No. 304.

“Hence,” they added, HB No. 304 seeks “to ensure that media workers shall be provided with comprehensive benefits package at par with the current benefits enjoyed by those in the labor force in both Government and the private sector. It seeks to create a safe and protected atmosphere conducive to a productive, free and fruitful media work, as well as to guarantee the right of workers to self-organization".

Such measure is being pursued even as social media savants, particularly vloggers, have somewhat eclipsed mainstream media both in terms of following and prominence.

HB No. 304 has the following objectives:

• To ensure that media workers shall have comprehensive benefits package at par with the current benefits enjoyed by those in the labor force both in government and the private sector;

• To ensure the creation of a safe, protected, and atmosphere conducive to a productive, free, and fruitful media work, as well as to guarantee the right of workers to self-organization;

• To motivate and encourage media workers to perform their duties as truthful and responsible informers of the people;

• To ensure the observance and implementation of the principles agreed upon in the International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention No. 190 on the elimination of violence and harassment against workers (2019); and

• To ensure that the jobs of media workers in their current exercise of press freedom shall be free from any form of harassment.

The proposed statute defines media workers as those who are legitimately engaged in news media practice, directly or indirectly, whether as a principal occupation or not, including but not limited to regular employees, project employees or independent contractors.

As for media entities, these are defined in the bill as persons or institutions, including media networks and operators, that actively gather information of potential interest to a segment of the public, turns gathered information into a distinct work, or distributes that work to an audience within the Philippines.

Villafuerte's co-authors are Camarines Sur Reps. Miguel Luis Villafuerte and Tsuyoshi Anthony Horibata, and Bicol Saro Party-list Rep. Nicolas Enciso VIII.