DOLE eyes 90% cut in laborer deployment

MANILA, Philippines — To mitigate the shortage of construction workers in the country, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) may cut down the deployment of construction workers abroad by as much as 90 percent.

“We really have urgent need for construction workers, and this is the reason we have slowed down our deployment overseas,” Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello said in an interview over the weekend.

“In fact, we are looking at about 80 to 90 percent reduction,” Bello said, adding that the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) has slowed down processing and deployment of construction workers since last year.

The slowdown in deployment of construction workers, Bello said, may last for three years or until the end of President Duterte’s term.

Bello noted that the construction industry has appealed to the DOLE to temporarily cease deploying construction workers because they are experiencing manpower shortage.

However, Bello stressed that the POEA did not impose a ban on deployment but merely slowed down the processing for construction workers’ deployment.

Based on POEA data, deployment of civil engineering laborers dropped from 7,718 in 2016 to 5,295 in 2017 while welders went down from 7,437 to 5,141 in the same period.

The total deployment of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) posted a 3.19 percent decline from 2,112,331 in 2016 to 2,044,877 in 2017.

Bello admitted that vacancies in construction cannot be filled because of job and skills mismatch.

“That is why there was request for TESDA to accelerate its training program. To upgrade the skills of our construction workers because there are new equipment that they are not capable of operating,” he explained, referring to the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority.

The labor chief said he also requested the Department of Transportation and Department of Public Works and Highways to ease the requirements in hiring of workers for the government’s Build Build Build projects.

Concerning request to increase the pay of construction workers, Bello said the DOLE will leave this to the country’s economic managers to decide.