Regularization in doubt amid ‘productive’ year

By William B. Depasupil, Manila Times, 29 Dec 2019

This year, the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) moved to secure the regularization of almost 600,000 contractual workers, increase employment and issue policies to protect Filipino workers’ rights.

But it could have been a more fruitful year for the agency had President Rodrigo Duterte not vetoed the Security of Tenure (SoT) Bill, a landmark legislation that would have prohibited subcontracting and all other illegal employment schemes of employing workers.

Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello 3rd had strongly recommended to President Duterte the enactment of the SoT Bill, emphasizing that the legislation would clarify the ambiguities in existing laws.

Putting a stop to “endo,” or end of contract system, was one of Duterte’s campaign promises.

Despite the President’s rejection of the anti-endo bill, Bello said significant
accomplishments were still achieved, resulting in more employment opportunities and higher employment rate.

DoLE records showed that 580,539 workers were regularized since the campaign against illegal contractualization began in 2016.

A total of 219,141 establishments were also inspected, covering around 13.69 million workers.

In 2019, the country’s employment expanded by 3.1 percent or 1.267 million additional jobs from the 2018 figure.

Employment growth in the services and industry sectors were enough to offset the slight decline in the agriculture sector.

Wholesale and retail trade, construction, public administration and defense, and compulsory social security sectors reported the highest number of additional workers year-on-year.

Estimates showed that unemployment eased by 4.1 percent and underemployment rate decreased by 2.4 percent.

But youth unemployment remains to be a major concern, the Bello admitted.

Only 38.5 percent or 7.7 million of the 20 million youth aged 15 to 24 were in the labor force.

Of this number, 6.6 million were employed, while 1.1 million were unemployed.

“To address this, we have provided employment assistance to 670,832 youth through the Special Program for the Employment of Students, Government Internship Program, and JobStart Philippines program,” the Labor chief said.

To facilitate employment, the Labor department conducted 5,615 Trabaho, Negosyo, Kabuhayan Job and Business Fairs, with 341,509 jobseekers being hired-on-the-spot.

Employment of foreigners

DoLE also introduced regulations to protect the rights of Filipino workers amid the increasing number of Chinese and foreigners being employed in the country.

These include the Joint Guidelines 01, series of 2019, or the “Issuance of Work and Employment Permits for Foreign Nationals;” Joint Memorandum Circular 01, series of 2019, or the “Rules and Procedures Governing Foreign Nationals Intending to Work in the Philippines;” and Department Order 205, series of 2019, or the “Implementing Guidelines on the Issuance of Certificate of No Objection on the Application for Work-Related Permits, Visas and Authorities of Foreign Nationals.”

The Labor department reported that it issued 111,583 alien employment permits (AEPs) to foreign nationals working in the Philippines.

Of this figure, 75.07 percent or 83,764 AEPs were issued to Philippine offshore gaming operator-related establishments nationwide.

The AEP is a requirement before a foreign worker is issued a working visa by the Bureau of Immigration. The employer applies the permit for their foreign employees.

Bello said productivity training was also provided to 98,025 workers and 50,586 micro, small and medium enterprises to ensure their competitiveness.

Also, through the simplified and fast resolution of labor disputes, DoLE has settled nearly 265,846 labor cases, with benefits amounting to roughly P65.138 billion to some 990,756 workers.

The agency also awarded P6 billion from the settlement of some 139,397 cases through the Single Entry Approach (SEnA), which benefited around 184,986 workers.

SEnA is a conciliation-mediation alternative dispute resolution system that is inexpensive, fair and fast in resolving labor issues.

According to Bello, through preventive mediation, DoLE facilitated the settlement of P606.323 million in claims and benefits to some 9,684 workers in 1,573 cases.

Bello added that assistance was also extended to those in the informal sector, with 319,344 Filipinos granted livelihood assistance and 1.659 million workers provided with emergency employment under its Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers Program or Tupad.

“We have also extended the employment assistance to decommissioned fighters of the MILF (Moro Islamic Liberation Front) initially numbering 7,000 Moro rebels,” he said.

Assistance to OFWs

For overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), the Labor department provided on-site assistance to 2.990 million OFWs in the form of training, case management, custodial services, repatriation and other welfare assistance.

“And so, as we may be able to more efficiently serve our OFWs, we opened four new Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO), which now totals 40 POLOs across the globe. The new POLOs are in Los Angeles, Berlin, Wellington and Osaka,” Bello said.

“Other notable gifts to our OFWs are the Overseas Filipino Bank, which offers low remittance service rates and profitable investments to OFWs; and the OFW Identification Card to enable the OFWs to easily transact business with government and private agencies,” he added.

The Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) Hotline 1348 was launched this year to enable faster and more responsive service to calls requesting assistance on various OFW programs.

Also just recently, DoLE launched a mobile application that would serve as a tool for local and overseas workers to easily access the latest news and regulations at work, and immediately contact the department and the POLOs in their respective countries, and the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency and OWWA.

Another notable feature of the application is the “Wage Calculator,” which will enable the users to compute their wages with their overtime, holiday pays and the corresponding deductions.

“As we look forward to another fruitful year, we are optimistic that we will sustain what we have started in promoting gainful employment opportunities; developing human resources; protecting workers and their welfare, and maintaining industrial peace,” Bello said.