DOLE-7 awards P44.6 million to nearly 2T CV workers

CEBU, Philippines — The Department of Labor and Employment-7 has awarded around P44.6 million to almost 2,000 workers in Central Visayas after seeking assistance under their Single Entry Approach (SEnA) program.

DOLE-7 OIC-Regional Director Lilia A. Estillore said that the monetary benefits were an offshoot of the settled requests for assistance (RFAs) lodged under SEnA for the whole year of 2022.

SEnA is an administrative approach to provide a speedy, impartial, inexpensive, and accessible settlement procedure of all labor issues or conflicts to prevent them from ripening into full-blown disputes or actual labor cases.

The months that registered the highest amount of monetary awards produced under SEnA included February with P5.6 million awarded to affected workers; November with P5.3 million; January with P4.9 million; September with P4.3 million; and April with P4.2 million.

“These accomplishments are credited to the settled requests for assistance or RFAs that were received and handled by the different field offices and divisions of DOLE-7. We have our Single Entry Assistance Desk Officers or SEADOs, who ensured the disposition of RFAs received not later than the 30 calendar days process cycle time,” Estillore said.

Among the five field offices of DOLE-7, it’s the Tri-City Field Office (TCFO) – covering the cities of Cebu, Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu – that had the biggest amount at P19.3 million being benefited by 880 workers.

Coming in next is the Negros Oriental Field Office (NOFO), which awarded P10.7 million to 449 workers. The Cebu Provincial Field Office (CPFO), for its part, tallied 286 workers, who benefited from the P7.6 million monetary award.

In the Province of Bohol, there were 333 workers who were collectively awarded with P6.5 million. In Siquijor, over P422,000 was benefited by 35 affected workers.

Estillore noted that for the settled requests for assistance, the average duration to settle such only lasted for about six days as against the process cycle time of 30 calendar days to settle and dispose of a request for assistance.

“I have all the SEADOs to thank for exerting best effort every time they facilitate a SEnA conference, while making sure that both parties come to some mutually agreed terms,” the regional chief said.

Estillore added that to further enhance the capacity of their SEADOs, part of the action plan of their Learning and Development Team would be to conduct a re-tooling session among all the SEADOs where they will not only be refreshed with the provisions of the SEnA law but will also be immersed with latest trends in conducting conciliation and mediation proceedings.

The SEnA has been institutionalized with the passage of Republic Act No. 10396 or An Act Strengthening Conciliation-Mediation as a Voluntary Mode of Dispute Settlement for all Labor Cases, Amending for the Purpose Article 228 of Presidential Decree No. 44 otherwise Known as the Labor Code of the Philippines (As Amended).

To incentivize and highlight the top performing SEADOs, Estillore said, the best SEADO is awarded during the regular conduct of the DOLE Programs on Awards and Incentives for Services Excellence (DOLE PRAISE).

Highlighting the advantage of SEnA since it’s free, speedy, and non-litigious, she encouraged the public especially any aggrieved party – worker or employer - to give SEnA a try.

“We want to raise awareness among our customers that all employer-employee-related concerns and disputes would really have to go through this mechanism first before anyone could file a formal complaint,” she further said. —/GMR (FREEMAN)