Labor Regional Director Ponciano Ligutom  has announced   that the Department of Labor and Employment is now implementing the new policies on job contracting despite opposition from some  job contractors  in Negros Occidental, a press release from thr DOLE said yesterday.

“We (the DOLE) are charged to implement the Order”, Ligutom said, when he spoke before participants at the ongoing seminar on Occupational Safety and Health for Construction Industry  at Planta Hotel in Bacolod City.

Department Order No. 18-A amends the existing regulations on job contracting and subcontracting arrangements under the old Department Order No. 18 issued in 2002.

The new DOLE Order was issued November last year to emphasize more secure and humane work conditions for the workers of job contracting firms.

Ligutom asked job contactors, who may have reservations on the new policies, to give a positive view to the new regulations since it will bring good to all both the contractors and the workers. “Let’s give the policies a chance to be implemented”, he added.

The amendments include revisions on the required financial capacity of job contractor to open up this business.

It only allows contractors, who have a paid up capital of at least P3 million for corporations and cooperatives and a net worth of the same amount for single ownership, to operate, the press release said.

Ligutom said that the registration of contracting establishments is now pegged at P25,000 instead of the previous P100 to avoid “fly by night” contractors now proliferating in the industry. 

He  said that  the increase of registration fee is a way of cleansing up the list of contacting firms, and to keep away  opportunist establishments preying on the security of tenure of workers.

“In the past, most of them just closed down whenever they have labor problems because reopening a contracting agency was a cheap undertaking”, Ligutom added.

The two-day seminar was sponsored by the Philippine Constructors Association of Negros in coordination with the Labspeak Construction Occupational Safety and Health.

Speakers and lecturers of the seminar included  Ma. Brenda  Villafuerte,  director of the Bureau of Working Conditions, officials from the Occupational Safety and Health Center, and known safety practitioners  in the province.*

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