Social Dialogue Cases Philippines

7/28/2019 Social Dialogue Cases Philippines

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Abstracts of Pilot Area Social Dialogue Experiences (Philippines)

Department of Education Central Office1

Social dialogue (SD) as a task for the agency was not warmly received at first; the major consideration

was who among the personnel has the mandate to implement it? More so, where will the budget be

sourced in order to support the SD promotion? But at the end of the day, all these hardly matter

considering the fact that there is a bigger concern at hand that is the environmental risk of being

located on a fault line.

Everyone in the agency knows that the country lies in earthquake sensitive plates and that a major

fault line straddles its office building. To address the issue and in keeping with the occupational health

and safety of its employees, the DepEd began to develop its Disaster Risk Reduction Resource

Manual (DRRRM). The Manual covers, not only the health and safety of the agencys Central Office

Staff but also all DepEd regional offices and public elementary and high schools all over the country.

The idea is for users of the Manual to learn how organize disaster preparedness and post disaster

capabilities, including capacity of schools to serve as evacuation centres during calamites.

But the DepEd Central Office Employees Union did not readily embrace the recommendation that was

for almost two years consigned to non action on the part of the Union and DepEd management.

Meetings were then organized between employees and the agency head resulting in no less than a

request from Secretary Jesli Lapuz for a comprehensive plan on calamity and disaster preparedness.Through these social dialogues, the Secretary understood the urgency of the occupational health and

safety programmes. He proceeded to have the DepEd Administrative Service to organize the Calamity

and Disaster Preparedness Officers and Members.

A Fire Safety and Hazard Control Seminar was the first activity that jumpstarted the OSH activities.

Little by little, funds made available were spent on safety seminars and equipment. In the process, the

1This article is based on a written account by Zenaida M. de Vera, Administrative Officer at the Department of Education

Central Office.

In the series of workshops conducted to

produce the DRRRM, the National Disaster

Coordinating Council (NDCC) at that time

recommended the establishment of an

Occupational Safety and Health (OSH)

Committee and an Incident Command System

(ICS) within the agency. The committees will bedesigned to quickly respond to

calamities/disaster or any similar occurrences,

and develop plans and programmes to possibly

eliminate human and /or man-made hazards.


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management recognized the importance of keeping a readily available group with life saving

knowledge and skills. In addition to these capacity building seminars, orientation and drills were carried

out together with central office employees. Also, equipment like a fire truck with ladder was provided

to the teams.

With the continuing social dialogue between management and staff, the OSH committee was formally

organized. Part of formalizing the organization of the OSH was the conduct of the Social Dialogue and

OSH Capability Training Seminars for DepEd Marshals and Coordinators for three groups of participants

in the central office held on July 2011. This same activity is planned to be conducted at the regional

offices and participating schools throughout the nation.

From this experience, there are some points worth noting:

First, introducing SD entails a lot of patience to take it to a higher level of acceptance. In thecase of DepEd central office, acceptance had some push from environmental realities and

increased awareness, e.g. fault line location of the office, coupled by news of recent

earthquakes in New Zealand and Japan.

Second, there must be sufficient observable activities to help introduce SD to themanagement, and to ensure that these are effective and convincing enough so that the

importance of SD will be imbibed not only by the management but also by the staff. In this

instance, the development of the DRRRM Manual, the training workshops of OSH officers and

marshals, and the general office-wide drills provided the needed evidence.

Third, there should be wide dissemination of information on the relationship of SD and OSHconcepts; so as to further enable those affected to understand and appreciate them,

particularly those in the management side. Deeper appreciation among management peopleis expected to facilitate the funds required of the SD processes. This is quite important in

DepEd because the activities should cover not only the central office but also the regional

offices and schools.

***ends***


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Department of Health Central Office

2

In the Department of Health, the issue on occupational health is paramount for obvious reasons.

Internal to the organization is the fact that health workers are exposed to more risks in their jobs, such

as communicable diseases and sharp implements in their normal course of work amplify those risks.

It was good timing that social dialogue was introduced, adopting the issue of occupational health. As

described by the article writers: The health sector is one of the neglected groups in the working

population which is not given the needed priority when it comes to program or services on

occupational health and safety. The healthcare workers are undeniably more exposed to hazardous

working environment compared to their counterparts in the industry sector. Their prolonged and

continuous exposures to infectious diseases and other health risks inherent in working in the

healthcare facility make them highly vulnerable to injury, sickness and even death. However due to

social dialogue experiences, health workers in all types of occupations are entitled to a healthy and

safe working place, humane working environment, protection from hazards and risks associated with

their occupation which is also in consonance with the provisions stipulated under the rules and

regulations governing the Magna Carta of Public Health Workers (RA 7305), the Occupational Safetyand Health Standards under the Labor Code of the Philippines, the Implementing Rules and Regulation

of Chapter VII on Industrial Hygiene under the Sanitation Code of the Philippines, the Civil Service

Commission and the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (RA 7875).3

Two objectives were defined at the DOH central office when they partnered with the Danish Trade

Union Council for International Development Cooperation (LO/FTF Council). They sought to promote

social dialogue to improve working conditions for health workers and to create good management

employee relations that will result in quality public service.

Under the new governments Kalusugan Pangkalahatan or universal health care for all, the DOHneeded to formalize its policy guidelines on occupational health and safety (OHS) of public health

workers.

An OSH committee was organized in early 2011 at the DOH. This committee, through the social

dialogue project, held a series of consultative meetings / workshops with other health partner

organizations, such as the: Occupational Health Nurses Association of the Philippines, DOLE-

Occupational Safety and Health Center, Philippine Heart Center, UP College of Public Health, Philippine

Health Insurance Corporation and Civil Service Commission.

The meetings/workshops resulted in a draft Administrative Order (AO) from the Secretary of Health

Hon. Enrique Ona addressing the concerns of health workers, and recommends social dialogue as aninstrument towards successfully implementing and sustaining the universal health care campaign.

***ends***

2From an account by Primo Prado, Ann Cheriese Roque, and Rolando Palapar, Department of Health central office

3Prado, et. al., op cit.


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Tipas Elementary School (Main Campus, Taguig City)The Tipas Elementary School in Taguig City is a typical government run public school having similar

problems as other schools throughout the country, particularly the lack of teachers and insufficient

infrastructure. More students attend school every school year, while the number of teachers remains

the same. There is often an overload of students, from 50 to 65 in a classroom that can only hold

ideally about 40 students for an optimum learning environment. Classrooms have not been built to

respond to increasing number of students and teachers become overworked due to the practice of

holding several class sessions or combinations of class sessions.

The OSH committee in the school was set up and activated. Using different forms of social dialogues (a

series of meetings, conferences attended by both school management and faculty) enabled the

Committee Members to identify the following OSH issues which so far had been addressed:

a. Painting of glass windows, funded by the GPTA to minimize the penetration of sunlight tothe affected classrooms

b. Procurement of additional electric fan units for 26 classrooms, after several consultationswith the TESAA alumni officers.

c. Installation of fabricated classroom locks to avoid burglary, funded by the school MOOEbudget after a series of meetings with the principal.

d. Procurement of 3 additional air conditioning units, budget was carefully planned andallotted by the management just to address the poor ventilation among the 3 ancillary

centres (feeding, library, and clinic).

e.

Construction of hand washing area by the GPTA as proposed by the OSH committee topromote water sanitation and hygiene awareness among pupils in different grade levels.

f. Special Study Circle Program with the principal, scheduled daily within a week by thelevels note: Study Circle Program - adopted school consultation program designed to let

every grade level to talk directly with the principal concerning grade level problems and

issues for immediate problem resolutions.

When the Alliance Project on Social

Dialogue began in Tipas Elementary

School, there was resistance due to

misconceptions and wrong impressions.

However, the close link between Social

Dialogue and Occupational Health andSafety, and how the former can advance

workers and management concerns on

OSH created an immediate favourable

transformation and acceptance.


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g. Other matters and issues between the management and rank-in-file were settled in a

system of direct access to the principal's office open door system by making the social

dialogue process a part of the culture of school governance

Social Dialogue Awareness Raising activities at Tipas were extended to peripheral schools and faculty

members through the Taguig Public School Teachers Association, upon the assumption of a former

faculty member as the federation president. The application of social dialogue concepts and practices

at the Division level was approved by the Local School Board Committee and eventually by the City

Mayor of Taguig City.

One of the most significant accomplishments of social dialogue at the Taguig division level was the

approval of the Teachers Association resolution that provided an increase in the honorarium of

educators from Php 2,000.00 to Php 3,000.00 every quarter.

***ends*


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Valenzuela Medical Center (Valenzuela City)

There is no existing employees organization VMC although there have been efforts to form one in the

past. There also is no Labour-Management Committee that exists within VMC. Even their Grievance

Committee is not functional, since no complaints submitted to the Committee has ever been acted

upon.

In 2009, the VMC became a participant in the second phase of the Strategic Alliance Project on Social

Dialogue. The SD Project assessment of VMC was done using questions that were asked regarding

social dialogue processes and OSH initiatives in the hospital. During the process, agreements were

achieved and the past plans were enhanced and finalized. The Chief of Hospital, Dr. Mario Panay said

that VMH was able to negotiate with the Local Government Unit of Valenzuela regarding the

construction of a hospital annex building and therefore improve the working condition of the hospital

personnel and the quality of services they are rendering to the people of Valenzuela.

The response had been enthusiastic since then. Immediately, the hospital management called a

General Assembly of all its employees and officers were elected to constitute the SD committee. Thiscommittee has been authorized by the VMC management to represent the rank and file.

The VMC management responded quickly to the issues and concerns that were presented, especially

the internal concerns. These included: issuance of monthly pay slips, timely payroll processing for

contractual employees, additional computers and air conditioning for staff, and the construction of

infirmary wards for employees. Also, the renovation and repair of hospital premises, the annual

physical check up of employees, and replacement of modern office furniture for the comfort of the

staff were all prioritized.

For The clients, the following were also given priority: additional chairs for the patient waiting room,relocation of executive and administrative offices to another building to give way to more hospital

rooms in the main building, and installation of proper directional signs for patients and their

companions.

Employees were likewise provided with seminars on stress management. The renovation of the

hospitals safety features, such as fire alarms, smoke and heat detection systems, fire sprinkler systems,

replacement of the old ceiling with fire retardant materials, and a sewage treatment facility are

currently being undertaken.

The VMC management has taken one step higher in their SD practice by being able to push the

Department of Health to construct additional buildings to serve more patients.

Social Dialogue Cases Philippines

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