By Mike Crismundo
BUTUAN CITY – The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) in the region has disclosed that 3, 763 workers were already given regular employment in Caraga region with 6,000 more expected to be regularized before the end of the year.
(MANILA BULLETIN)
“The already regularized workers came from the 60 medium and big business establishments in various cities and provinces in Northeastern Mindanao,” said Regional Director Chona M. Mantilla of DOLE.
The workers mostly came from the retail service establishments, security agencies, food chain, construction, agriculture, mining companies, and other business establishments.
She said about 295 workers of Jollibee in the cities of Surigao, Tandag, Butuan and San Francisco, Agusan del Sur were already regularized.
“This new development was the result of the random validation of voluntary regularization by the Mediation-Arbitration and Legal Service Unit of DOLE Caraga Region 13,” Mantilla said.
She said DOLE’s Mediation-Arbitration and Legal Service Unit is still validating other companies which are set to regularize their workers.
“We are eyeing 6,000 workers to be regularized before the end of this year,” she said.
Through Labor Advisory No. 06, series of 2017, the DOLE Caraga Regional Office through the Mediation-Arbitration has intensified its efforts in eradicating contractual arrangements, by working doubly in encouraging the establishments for voluntary regularization of employees ensuring their rights to labor standards benefits, self-organization and security of tenure, Mantilla said.
“With our all-out drive, it’s good enough that voluntarily regularization is now ongoing and targeted business establishments continuously file their statements with our regional office as we also continue our on the ground validation and assessments of their submitted documents,” she said.
The agency is pushing forward in encouraging 49 other big business establishments in Caraga region to follow the labor advisory, she added.
Labor Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III, is serious in implementing D.O. 174, which took effect on April 3, 2017, to end labor-only contracting and other forms of unlawful contractual arrangements, Mantilla added.