BACOLOD City – Following the directive of Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) secretary Silvestre Bello III on intensifying efforts towards ending contractualization, DOLE – Regional Office 6 under the leadership of regional director Atty. Johnson Cańete is inviting employers from various sectors to attend series of orientations on regularization of workers in the private sector.
In Negros Occidental alone, four orientations have already been conducted for March 2018. The orientations were heavily participated by 118 company owners, human resource managers and other representatives from identified priority sectors in the province, namely, Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), Association of Negros Producers, Inc., retail stores and establishments and the group of contractors and subcontractors.
The conduct of the orientations was conceived by Cańete upon receipt of instruction from the Central Office to regularize at least 300,000 workers for 2018. Of this figure, Region 6 was given a target of 15,000 workers from the six provinces comprising the Region, specifically, Aklan, Antique, Capiz, Guimaras, Iloilo and Negros Occidental. The target was determined based on Region 6’s share in its target in inspection of 3,048 establishments to be covered by its 24 Labor Inspectors who all have been given a General Authority to conduct inspection for the year.
In his message to the employers Cańete said, “There are various strategies that the Region has identified in order to reach the target on regularization. One is the hard approach which is the issuance of compliance order by the region in the case when the employer refuses to settle findings on security of tenure based on inspection. On the other hand, ‘soft approach’ can also be adopted and that is, educating the employers on the legal basis of regularization and encouraging them to voluntarily comply on the directive of the present administration on ending all forms of illegitimate work arrangements and those not observing provision of security of tenure among their workers,”
Further, Cańete said that he is hopeful that through the orientations on topics that employers ought to know about contracting and sub-contracting arrangements, they will be voluntarily submitting compliance on regularization of their workers.
The topics that were discussed include the 2018 deliverables, priority and plans of DOLE including the targets of the Region on all its organizational outcomes for the year; review on employee-employer relationship; Department Order No. 174-17 or the Rules Implementing Articles 106 to 109 of the Labor Code, as Amended; and Department Order No. 183-17 or the Revised Rules on the Administration and Enforcement of Labor Laws Pursuant to Article 128 of the Labor Code, As Amended.
By the end of the orientations, the participants were given the prescribed Notice of Regularization forms which they will use in the reporting of their regularization activities along with an Affidavit of Undertaking to reflect their commitment to voluntarily regularize workers identified under illegitimate forms of work arrangements.
Ms. Mary Agnes N. Capigon, Head of DOLE – Negros Occidental Field Office said that the provincial office is positive about the turnout of the orientations considering that some invited employers are already complying with the directive but have not just reported the same to DOLE. With the forms, according to her, those employers will be able to signify their compliance, accordingly.
From January to March of 2018, a total of 421 workers in the province of Negros Occidental have already been regularized through voluntary compliance of various establishments.
“This figure is expected to increase because we believe that our employers will be submitting themselves to the directive of DOLE to regularize all workers in the private sector,” Capigon added.
There are two more orientations which were spearheaded by Negros Oriental Field Office in April 2018. The remaining orientations covered members of the Association of Industrial Peace Advocates of Negros Occidental (AIPANO), Inc. and the Tripartite Industrial Peace Council of Negros Occidental./PN
