The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) has announced that information and technology-business processing management (IT-BPM) firms may now apply for Safety Seal certification, the government’s inter-agency program that affirms an establishment’s compliance to the minimum health standards.
The call for IT-BPMs to be safety-certified came after the heads of the Safety Seal Inter-agency Committee, particularly the DOLE, Department of Health (DOH), Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), Department of Tourism (DOT), and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) signed the Supplemental Guidelines Relative to the Implementing Guidelines of the Safety Seal Certification Program.
The Safety Seal confirms the establishments’ compliance with the minimum public health standards set by the government.
Labor Sec. Silvestre Bello III earlier commended the business process outsourcing industry for keeping the economy afloat at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Our IT-BPM firms were able to continue doing business due to the digital nature of their work. Hence, employment generation remained high in the industry,” the labor secretary explained.
To support the industry amid COVID-19, DOLE also pushed for the inclusion of IT-BPM firms employing special working arrangements (recognized under existing DOLE guidelines) in the list of businesses eligible to receive government incentives under the Corporate Recover and Tax Incentives for Enterprises Law. Such incentives include reduced income tax, as well as exemptions on value-added tax and other duty incentives.
Aside from economic measures, Bello also reiterated that recovery efforts must cover occupational safety and health (OSH) to effectively restart the economy.
“If we want to further enhance our economic growth and recovery, we must also assure our workers that they are healthy and safe in their respective workplaces,” he said, highlighting the importance of applying for Safety Seal certification.
Firms are required to assign OSH officers who will be in charge of enforcing public health standards in their areas under the safety certification program.
“Our safety officers play a key role in boosting the overall economic productivity of our firms. When workers are assured of their safety and health at their respective workplaces, work quality and productivity are also enhanced,” Bello pointed out.
Designated safety officers who have not yet undergone the required OSH training may take it for free at DOLE or any DOLE-accredited training organization.
Since January 2021, the labor department has waived the fees of the mandatory occupational health and safety training in workplaces to ease the burden of the pandemic-stricken micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSME) sector.
“This is also a form of assistance to our MSMEs being hardest hit by the restrictions due to the pandemic,” the DOLE chief earlier said.
In addition to IT-BPM companies, DOLE also issues the Safety Seal to manufacturing, construction, utilities, information and communication, and warehousing companies.
Visit DOLE’s Safety Seal Certification microsite (https://bwc.dole.gov.ph/safetyseal) to know more about the program. (DOLE) – jlo
