InterAksyon.com
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MANILA, Philippines -- Labor and Employment Secretary Rosalinda Dimapilis-Baldoz on Thursday instructed the department's corps of labor attaches to make it easy to do business with the Philippine Overseas Labor Offices but not for violators of the law.
"Simple lang ang aking policy direction: easy to do business, and easy to go for violators," said Baldoz during the regional conference of Middle East labor attaches held from Jan. 26 to 27 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
The regional conference, attended by labor attaches and assistant labor attaches from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (Riyadh, Jeddah, Al Khobar); United Arab Emirates (Dubai and Abu Dhabi); Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, and Libya, was held to review POLO operations, assess labor market situation with regards to overseas employment, OFW welfare and protection, and political stability in the light of the so-called Arab spring uprisings that wrought civil unrest in the region.
It was also held to harmonize overseas employment systems and processes in pursuit of the labor governance and employment reforms contained in the Labor and Employment Plan 2011-2016.
"This is an opportunity for us to sit down and discuss and reason. Dapat mapag-usapan na talaga natin nang maliwanag kung ano ang mga 'good news' na ginagawa natin at dapat gagawin pa (The good news that we do and have done must be communicated) to really make a difference in the lives of our 'bosses,' the Filipino workers," said Secretary Baldoz in prefacing her policy directives to the labor attaches.
"It cannot be business as usual when you return to your posts," she said.
"We need to transform ourselves and our POLOs to be able to achieve our goals, and the POLOs should be able to mirror the eleven items on overseas employment contained in the 22-point labor and employment agenda of President Benigno S. Aquino III."
The Secretary's other major policy directives include the following:
* Speed up repatriation and the transformation of the Filipino Workers' Resource Centers as centers of excellence.
"The number of distressed OFWs sheltered in our FWRCs reflect the work you do in verifying employment contracts and vouching for legitimate employers who really care for our workers," she said.
* Reduce process cycle times (PCTs) with definitive deadlines by simplifying, streamlining, systematizing, and continually improving procedures and processes to make it easier for clients to transact business with POLOs.
* Work very closely and maintain strong working relationships with counterparts in the country destination (labor, immigration, police, and other competent authorities) who are helping in securing the welfare and protection of OFWs;
* Return to the basics by really coming out with reliable data on OFWsand employers (job orders). "It is time that we start cleansing out our data and use only one set of statistics," Baldoz said.
* Exercise financial integrity and accountability. Baldoz asked the labor attaches to be very honest by informing the central office if the single financial and administrative system designed for POLOs is able to help them in their work.
"To me, honesty in handling the money entrusted to you goes into the integrity of the person," she said, adding she will not hesitate to impose sanctions to erring POLO officials and employees who fail the test of integrity and accountability.
Baldoz also said she is strictly imposing performance scorecards for the POLO officers and instructed the International Labor Affairs Bureau to finalize the labor attaches' performance targets and indicators.
"Of course, I have certain targets common for all you at my level," she said, adding: "But I need you to propose solutions to your specific problems at the posts so we can agree on responsive policies and regulations."
