CLARK Field, Pampanga: The business process outsourcing (BPO) industry is calling on the government to fast track the passage of bills aimed at advancing the interests of the sector amid a global economic slowdown.
Oscar Sañez, Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPAP) president, told reporters gathered for an annual seminar here that the government should enact the said legislative measures, which are seen to further improve the local business environment and entice more BPO investors.
Among the pieces of legislation BPAP is pushing for include the Data Privacy bill, the proposal creating the Department of Information and Communication Technology (DICT), the Cyber Crime bill, amendments to the Labor Code and the Fiscal Incentives Rationalization measure.
Sañez said the Department of Trade and Industry’s existing guidelines on data privacy are not enough, thus the need for a new law. “Investors need an assurance that their data are protected not just by guidelines but by regulation,” he said, adding that a law would facilitate the arrest of offenders.
The creation of the DICT would bestow the agency with the mandate of implementing a national plan to improve information technology and the country’s telecommunications structure for the benefit of BPO firms, the BPAP official said. He said the current overseer, the Commission on Information and Communications Technology, is still a small body under the Office of the President.
Sañez said the Cyber Crime bill would impose a stronger regulatory regime necessary to deter crimes committed online, while the amendments to the Labor Code would update certain outdated provisions, such as the need to adjust work-hour boundaries—or allowing workers to render service for more than eight hours—and rules limiting workers with regards to gender and location.
The Fiscal Incentives Rationalization bill likewise would update the current law—Executive Order 226—with a view to helping attract more BPO investors. –Ben Arnold O. De Vera, Reporter, Manila Times
World Day for Safety and Health at Work
“Safety and health at work every day!”
Invoke Article 33 of the ILO constitution
against the military junta in Myanmar to carry out the 2021 ILO Commission of Inquiry recommendations against serious violations of Forced Labour and Freedom of Association protocols.
Accept National Unity Government
(NUG) of Myanmar.
Reject Military!
#WearMask #WashHands #Distancing #TakePicturesVideos
Monthly Observances:
March – Women’s Role in History Month
April – Month of Planet Earth
Weekly Observances:
Last Week of March: Protection and Gender Fair Treatment of the Girl Child Week
Last Week of April – World Immunization Week
Daily Observances:
Mar 25 – International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transallantic Slave Trade
Mar 27– Earth Hour
Apr 21 – Civil Service Day
Apr 22 – World Earth Day
Apr 28 – World Day for Safety and Health at Work
