MANILA: The Philippine Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) has set up a one-stop- shop for Filipinos wanting to work overseas in a bid to make the required government services easily available for them.
“The one-stop shop is part of the efforts of the department to realize the directives of President Rodrigo Duterte to make the services of government agencies accessible to Filipinos who are currently working or planning to work overseas,” The Standard quoted the country’s Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III, as saying.
“The one-stop-shop will include several facilitative services which aim to make the issuance and validation process of documentary requirements easier and more convenient for OFWs, especially for returning migrant workers,” he reportedly said.
Apart from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) and Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA), the one-stop shop will also include other government agencies, such as the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), the report said.
Filipino workers applying for work overseas should be able to get all the clearances they need, including those required by the DFA, the police authorities, and health services in just one place, he was quoted as saying.
He added that aside from shortening the time to process their documents, the one-stop shop will also reduce the expenses of OFWs since the services of concerned government agencies can already be availed of in just one location.
President Duterte had earlier directed all government agencies to fast-track and make accessible the government services to the Filipinos and reduce official transaction time to 72 hours.
Meanwhile, around 19,000 workers received a total amount of PhP974 million in benefits through the settlement of labor disputes under the Dole’s Single Entry Approach (SEnA) scheme from January to May this year.
SEnA is being implemented by the National Conciliation and Mediation Board (NCMB), the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC), OWWA, POEA, DoLE Regional Offices, and even the Philippine Overseas Labor Offices (POLO), reported The Standard.
Bello reportedly said most of the resolved issues involved underpayment of wages, non-payment of over-time pay, holiday pay and thirteenth month pay, non-coverage of social protection benefits under SSS, PhilHealth, and Pag-ibig, and illegal dismissal cases.
He added that SEnA settles all issues arising from labor and employment which may include the termination or suspension of employment issues; claims for any sum of money, regardless of amount; intra-union and inter-union issues except petition for certification election, after exhaustion of administrative remedies; unfair labor practices, closures, retrenchments, redundancies, temporary lay-offs and OFW cases.
The SEnA, a DoLE flagship reform program on labor adjudication, prescribes 30-day mandatory conciliation–mediation services to effect fair and speedy settlement of all DoLE cases, said the news portal.
