MANILA — The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) is poised to submit this month to President Rodrigo Duterte the list of labor law violators and those that continue to engage in illegal contractualization practices in the country.
DOLE Secretary Silvestre Bello III said they are just finalizing the list that will be submitted to Malacañang by May 25.
In a statement, he added the Bureau of Working Conditions (BWC) is validating its inventory for submission to Malacanang.
On the other hand, BWC Director Ma. Teresita Cucueco said so far the regions that have submitted the list of non-compliant companies are Regional Office Nos. 4-B, 6, 7, 11 and 12. The others are expected to submit within the week.
“Of the submitted list, company violations usually involve non-compliance with minimum wage orders, proper computation of overtime pays, and remittance of social benefits,” she added.
Cucueco noted that another frequent violation of employers is not having a safety officer, who takes charge over evacuation planning, monitoring, and checking of occupational safety in the workplace and other safety-related matters in the company.
Earlier, President Rodrigo Duterte ordered Bello to identify and submit a list of companies violating labor laws and those engaged in illegal labor-only contracting.
The DOLE has been conducting inspections of establishments in the country for compliance of labor laws and standards and occupational health and safety.
Fast-food chains, malls, and manufacturing companies are some of the priority industries being inspected, and Bello said more compliance orders to regularize workers across all regions are underway.
Bello also reported that the Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP) has expressed support over the campaign of the government to provide security of tenure and regularize workers.
“We gained the support of ECOP and they vowed to kick out from their organization any employer who will not obey the orders of the President and DOLE,” he said.
The DOLE chief also cited the government’s deficiency in inspection with the insufficient number of labor inspectors.
“There are around 900,000 business establishments in the country for which we need to inspect. However, we only have 570 inspectors. But we are not sleeping on our responsibilities,” Bello said. (DOLE-PR/PNA)
