Senator Rafael "Raffy" Tulfo is proposing a one-strike policy for abusive employers who are not complying with the country’s minimum wage law and are not giving the benefits due to their workers.
Tulfo, vice chairman of the Senate labor committee, stressed this during the Senate Committee on Labor hearing yesterday, May 10, where he asked that employers should immediately be penalized and obliged to pay when a worker presented strong evidence against them.
He lamented that the country’s current labor law appears to be toothless because non-compliant employers are not afraid of it due to lack of implementation.
Apart from the penalty such as a higher fine, for example, Tulfo said that the employers facing complaints should immediately pay the employees without complaining.
Under the current policy which Tulfo criticizes, when an employee reports his erring employer to the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), the worker still needs to go through tedious and long process despite presenting strong evidence that his complaint is legitimate.
Tulfo stated that DOLE should start by issuing letter to the employer asking for explanation, and if said employer fails to respond, it would still be given another chance to reply.
He said this process is being exploited by abusive employers because for them, it is a way to delay the worker's chance of getting justice.
Tulfo added that another policy that is favorable to abusive employers is the rule stating that the complaint of workers should still need to undergo mediation, which could reach up to three hearings.
And if they cannot reach into agreement during mediation, DOLE will then forward the complaint to National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC) which will only exhaust the money of workers because said worker needs to go back and forth to NLRC.
Worst case scenario, the case could last up to decades before getting resolved, Tulfo pointed out.
Under a proposed new system,Tulfo said he wants this lengthy anti-poor process to be removed.
According to him, the Rules of Procedure in DOLE will be revised in such a way that employees must immediately pay workers who managed to present overwhelming evidence that he was abused.