DoLE cites firms, contractors complying with safety and health programs

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) Sunday reported a surge in the number of companies and contractors implementing their own occupational safety and health (OSH) programs last year.

Labor and Employment Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz said in a statement that DoLE’s Bureau of Working Conditions recorded 134 companies from seven industries, which were recognized for their Safety Milestone (SMILE) recognition programs.

The nationwide SMILE program aims to recognize companies and contractors, which have successfully complied with DoLE’s OSH and prevented work accidents and injuries.

“The number of SMILE awardees in 2011 surpassed by 27.6 percent the total number of awardees in 2010, which reached only 105 establishments,’ Baldoz said.

Meanwhile, DoLE also posted a 14.5 percent increase in the number of recognized contractors after it rose from 373 in 2010 to 427 last year.

Labor Undersecretary Lourdes Transmonte, who heads DoLE’s Workers Welfare and Protection cluster, welcomed this development since it led to more savings for compliant companies and contractors.

“The implementation of safety and health programs and activities are not just about costs but investments to sustain the business amid industry challenges. OSH compliant companies become more competitive, productive, and stable,” Transmonte said.

Last year, DoLE was able to record 118 million hours of safe work hours, resulting to an estimated P16 million that contributed to the preservation of about 41,000 workers.

Meanwhile, almost half of the establishments, which provide Pre-Departure Orientation Seminar (PDOS) to overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), have no qualified trainers, a government labor study showed.

Institute for Labor Studies (ILS) senior employment officer Iza Anchustegui said in her research paper that only about 55 percent of the assessed PDOS providers have qualified trainers.

The research, which evaluated the implementation of PDOS in the country, included 54 accredited PDOS providers.

PDOS is a comprehensive education module given to OFWs to orient them in the regulation in their des-tination countries and their rights and responsibilities as migrant workers.

It is given by the Overseas Worker Welfare Administration (OWWA) .accredited non-government orga-nization, industry associations, and private recruitment and manning agencies,

“Only 28 OWWA-accredited PDOS providers have trainers who completed the Trainer’s Training for the re-designed PDOS from 2008-2010,” Anchustegui said. She said most of these compliant PDOS providers are from the land-based sector.

The report also showed only four percent of the providers was able to comply with the government-pre-scribed content and methodology, while only 26 percent implemented the PDOS policy-guidelines.

However, it showed about 85 percent of the assessed providers have the necessary equipments and the ratio of students per classroom.

“The results of the study show that PDOS providers have a low percentage of compliance to the policies governing the implementation of PDOS,” Anchustegui noted.

To address this, ILS recommended to OWWA the reductions of the number of topics covered by PDOS to include only those, which will help OFWs adjust in the first six weeks of their stay in a country.

It also urged OWWA to adjust the language of the PDOS to the skill and type of workers, separate the orientation session for commercial entities, reorient unqualified trainers, and coordinate with the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) to sanction agencies, which violated the policies of PDOS.

Meanwhile, it also recommended to the DoLE to intensify the implementation of the Post Arrival Orientation Seminar, which is being conducted by Philippine Overseas Labor Office for OFWs once they arrive in their destination countries.

ILS conducted the study amid reports from migrant advocate groups, who blamed the ineffective imple-mentation of PDOS for the rising cases of OFWs, who are violating the laws of their host countries.  –SAMUEL P. MEDENILLA, Manila Bulletin