Close to 3,000 affected workers in Central Visayas benefitted under the Single Entry Approach (SEnA) program amounting to PHP173 million, the Department of Labor and Employment in Central Visayas (DOLE-7) said on Thursday. In a statement, the department said a total of 2,904 beneficiaries from all over the region were assisted from January to June. The workers claimed various monetary claims such as underpayment of wages; maternity claims; non-payment of 13th-month pay, holiday pay, night shift differential, service incentive leave and overtime pay, among others. It added that the largest amount of monetary awards were recorded in May with a total of PHP103.5 million given to 1,136 workers while the least amount was recorded in April at PHP1.7 million covering 96 workers. The DOLE also facilitated the release of the following monetary awards — PHP43.7 million to 887 affected workers in March; PHP11.8 million to 405 workers in February; PHP8.1 million to 221 workers in January and PHP3.9 million to 159 workers in June. DOLE-7 director Lilia Estillore said the positive outcome of SEnA, as an alternative dispute resolution mechanism, is the result of their different field offices’ collective efforts. During the first half of the year, the region handled a total of 1,379 requests for assistance (RFAs) with a settlement rate of 84.70 percent and a disposition rate of 97.75 percent. During this period, the DOLE-7 on average disposed of the handled requests for assistance in five to six calendar days. She lauded all the Single Entry Assistance Desk Officers (SEADOs) for exerting their best effort in making sure that the requests for assistance received from clients, either from the online SEnA or from the walk-in clients, are resolved within 30 calendar days or even earlier than the prescribed process cycle time. The amount of settlement and the number of workers benefited per field office are as follows: Tri-City Field Office (covering the cities of Cebu, Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu) – PHP161,562,759 released to 2,476 workers; Negros Oriental Field Office (NOFO) – PHP4,729,463 benefiting 118 workers; Cebu Provincial Field Office (CPFO) – PHP3,420,412 paid to 169 affected workers; Bohol Field Office – PHP2,624,293 released to 82 workers; and Siquijor Field Office – PHP715,073 benefiting 59 workers. Meanwhile, DOLE-7 OIC-Assistant Regional Director Emmanuel Ferrer urged both workers and employers who are aggrieved, to take full advantage of the SEnA, where conflicts arising from employer-employee relationship are expected to get settled within 30 calendar days through conciliation and mediation proceedings. SEnA is an administrative approach of the department to provide a speedy, impartial, inexpensive, and accessible settlement procedure for all issues or complaints arising from employer-employee relations to prevent them from turning into full-blown disputes. Under this approach, all labor and employment disputes shall undergo a 30-day mandatory conciliation-mediation process to effect settlement among the contending parties.
Source: Philippines News Agency