DOLE waives fee for mandatory occupational health and safety training

by Marje Pelayo, 1 Feb 2021

MANILA, Philippines – Starting this year, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) will be offering the mandatory occupational health and safety training in workplaces and enterprises for free

The new policy which was announced on Sunday (January 31) is pursuant to the directive of Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III to enhance workplace health and safety.

It also aims to ease the burden on micro, small and medium businesses amid the impact of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.

Secretary Bello emphasized the need to ensure the health and safety of the workers and employees to boost productivity as the economy reopens gradually.

“We are waiving the training fees being charged to micro and small businesses. The workers in those enterprises have to be assured of their safety and health while at the workplace. This is a big factor to their productivity,” he said.

“This is also a form of assistance to our MSMEs being hardest hit by the restrictions due to the pandemic,” he added.

The Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) law or Republic Act 11058 makes it mandatory to designate and train safety officers in all business establishments, the number of which corresponds to the number of employees in enterprises.

A fee of P5,500 per trainee is fixed by Occupational Safety and Health Center (OSHC) for the safety training.

It was a requirement ordered by DOLE In March 2019 following the issuance of the Implementing Rules and Regulations of the OSH Law released in January of the same year.

Under the guidelines, all establishments “are encouraged to immediately conduct mandatory workers’ OSH seminars for all workers/employees at no cost to the workers and attendance at such seminar shall be considered compensable working time.”

The OSH Law states that all workers are required to attend an eight-hour OSH seminar which should include a joint employer-employee orientation on safety and health standards.