Labor Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III yesterday announced that the Department of Budget and Management has approved DOLE’s request to create 36 senior labor and employment officers to reinforce the implementation of the labor laws compliance system in the country.
DOLE will start hiring of personnel for the newly created positions and the successful applicants, who will be under the Office of the Secretary, will be deployed across the country to beef-up the existing 574 labor laws compliance officers across the regions.
“These new positions will augment our current corps of labor inspectors in the assessment and inspection of business establishments in the country, particularly on their compliance with Department Order No. 174,” Bello said.
The SLEO personnel will be reporting directly to the Office of the Secretary and validate the assessment and inspection activities conducted by labor laws compliance officers nationwide.
Aside from the 36 new positions, Bello said the labor department has submitted to Congress a request for additional 200 labor laws compliance officer positions to perform effectively the assessment and inspection of around 937,554 small, medium and big business establishments in the country.
Apart from performing the functions relative to D.O. 174, LLCOs are expected to conduct a plant-level joint assessment of compliance by employer and workers’ representative; initiate awareness-raising and capacity-building of both employers and the workers and unions, and provide free technical assistance on productivity or compliance with technical safety and occupational safety and health standards (OSHS).
LLCOs are also mandated to recognize the establishments’ voluntary compliance through the Incentivizing Compliance Program (ICP); and help in enhancing plant-level partnership mechanism, such as the Labor Management Committee (LMC) or any workplace cooperation and partnership structure by ensuring sub-committees on OSHS, Compliance Productivity, Family Welfare Program and Grievance through convergence of DOLE plant-level programs and services known as the LMC Convergence Programs.
Based on the Civil Service Commission (CSC) minimum qualification standards for senior labor and employment officers with Salary Grade 19, must be a bachelor’s degree holder, preferably in the field of Mechanical, Civil or Electrical Engineering; Nursing; or Law; and must have two years of relevant experience in engineering, occupational safety and health, labor laws, and human resource policies.
The applicant must also have attended a total of eight hours of relevant training, preferably in labor laws, safety and health, and quality management systems; and a Career Service Professional/Second Level Eligibility passer.
The salary of a SLEO under the 2016 Philippine Salary Standardization Law is P39,151 (Second Tranche) per month, including a personal emergency relief allowance (PERA) of P2,000, plus other benefits allowed by the government.
