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THE Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) on Thursday said that
more than 18,000 workers have benefited from its inspection blitz
that corrected labor standard violations in various worksites all
over the country.
Labor Secretary Marianito Roque said in a
statement that the correction of labor standard violations has
resulted in the awarding of P37.43 million in settlements to 18,059
workers.
In a report to Roque, the Bureau of Working
Conditions said that necessary corrections on labor standards
violations were applied under the Labor Standards Enforcement
Framework.
Among the labor standards violations that were
corrected under the enforcement framework are compliance with the
minimum wage, and the provision of social welfare benefits from the
Philippine Health Insurance Corp., Pag-IBIG Fund and the Social
Security System.
Roque said the nationwide inspection blitz
covered about 30,059 establishments and will continue for the rest
of the year.
Roque also cited the department’s lean but
mean corps of 142 nationwide labor inspectors for ferreting out the
labor standards violations, and for pushing the necessary
corrections or the filing of the appropriate cases if necessary.
The bureau said an initial 8,555 establishments
with about 204,985 workers across the country have been inspected by
the Labor department’s inspectorate group from January to end of
May this year.
Generally compliant
Inspectors found that 4,751 of the
establishments inspected were generally compliant on labor standards
or a compliance rate of 55.53 percent.
More than two-thirds of the establishments
inspected were found to be compliant on core labor standards, thus
posting a compliance rate of 68.04 percent with minimum wage
compliance reaching 83.57 percent.
On the other hand, compliance on social welfare
benefits stood at 88.85 percent with 7,601 establishments. Topping
the compliance in this area was PhilHealth with 93.61 percent, SSS,
93.35 percent and Pag-IBIG with 90.40 percent.
However, 3,804 establishment inspected have been
found with violations on both the core labor standards or 2,734,
including the minimum wage (1,406) and provision of benefits under
Pag-IBIG (821), SSS (569) and PhilHealth (547).
Plant site corrections on the violations and
deficiencies on core labor standards and social welfare benefits
were immediately instituted on 610 establishments.
The bureau said immediate corrections resulted
in total field restitutions amounting to P8.834 million benefiting
10,421 workers.
In total, some 3,852 cases on labor standards
violations were handled on which 1,444 have been disposed resulting
to awards or settlements of P37.43 million, with 18,059 workers
benefiting.
-- Anthony Vargas
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