DOLE optimistic on passage of labor laws in 2012

Notwithstanding the attention on the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona when Congress resumes session Jan. 16, the Department of Labor and Employment voiced hopes lawmakers can pass several key labor laws and international instruments.

DOLE Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz particularly pushed for the passage of the “Kasambahay” bill that President Benigno Aquino III had endorsed as a priority measure.

“We at the Department take off from President Benigno S. Aquino III’s and the Legislative Development Advisory Council’s endorsement of the Kasambahay bill as a priority measure in the 15th Congress,” Baldoz said.

She said the DOLE has led a series of multi-sectoral consultations with labor, employers, civil society, consumers groups, and homeowners’ associations for a consensus bill on improving the minimum wages and working conditions of close to one million domestic workers or “kasambahays.”

The proposed measure primarily seeks to amend the present minimum wage for domestic workers, which is still pegged at P800.

Baldoz also said she hopes Congress will ratify International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention 189 on Domestic Workers.

ILO Convention 189 is a labor standard instrument that will accord migrant and domestic workers protection and decent work standards.

The Philippines had shepherded the adoption of the Convention in the 100th ILO Conference in Geneva in June 2011, with the DOLE chairing the ILO Labor Standards Sub-Committee on Domestic Work.

Senate, House bills

Baldoz also hoped for the legislation of the bill on strengthening the rights of workers to self-organization as embodied in House Bill No. 4552 and Senate Bill No. 2838.

These proposed measures seek to simplify the requirements for the registration of federation and national unions to encourage the growth of unionism in the Philippines.

In the House of Representatives, the Committee on Labor and Employment approved House Bill 4552 on October 6, 2011, and wrote Aquino to have the measure certified as a priority administration measure.

Senate Bill 2838, the counterpart Senate bill authored by Senators Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada and Antonio Trillanes IV, has been referred to the Senate labor committee chaired by Estrada.

Baldoz aso said the full implementation of Republic Act No. 10151, an act allowing the employment of night workers, goes into effect this year after it was signed into law on June 21, 2011.

Under this law, the BPO sector, which has some 500,000 workers, will be allowed to work at night without the rigidity of seeking exemption from the DOLE.

The law addresses the gender discrimination issue as contained in Articles 130-131 against women to render night work. — LBG, GMA News