By Raymart Escopel
ILOILO City – Ninety seven construction workers in Negros Occidental received monetary benefits worth P2.12 million through the intervention of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) Region VI on July 18.
A DOLE-VI statement said the monetary benefits include the construction workers’ wage differential, holiday pay premiums, 13th month pay, and other social benefits which were granted through the Department’s Single Entry Approach (SEnA).
SEnA is an administrative approach of DOLE in order to provide speedy, impartial, inexpensive and accessible settlement procedure for all issues and complaints between the employers and the employees.
Through this approach, the issues and complaints are being resolved before they become full blown disputes.
SEnA requires all labor and employment disputes to undergo a 30-day mandatory conciliation-mediation process in settling the issues and complaints.
The benefiting construction workers were employees of Master Incorporated, a construction company in Cebu City and the contractor of a real estate developing firm in Talisay City.
It was on June 26 when the construction workers sought the assistance of DOLE-VI in the recovery of their wage differential and other unpaid benefits.
Through SEnA Desk Officer (SEADO) Rogelio Paguntalan, the construction workers were able to get the monetary benefits less than a month after the filing of complaint.
With the resolution of the complaint, Paguntalan was elated as he said that the construction workers deserve to recover the benefits that are rightfully theirs.
Meanwhile, on his part, Norbeng Ocampo, one of the workers who received the monetary benefits, and has been with the company for five years, is very thankful for DOLE’s help through SEnA as he recovered the benefits that he was supposed to get a long time ago.
“I hope that the DOLE can help more workers like us in the future,” he added.
Based on the records of DOLE-VI, 340 out of 478 Request for Assistance (RFAs) filed were settled from the period of January to July. The number is equivalent to 71 percent settlement rate.
Moreover, SEnA has already benefited 1,586 workers with a total assistance worth P11,664,293.04.
Negros Occidental has listed the most number of RFAs reflecting to 75 percent of the total number or 375 RFAs handled by the region./PN
