Department of Labor and Employment - Region 3 Director Ma. Zenaida Angara-Campita. (Photo courtesy of DOLE)
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga — A total of 6,574 workers in Region 3 (Central Luzon) received a total of PHP147.92 million in monetary claims in 2019 through the Single Entry Approach (SEnA) program of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), an official said on Tuesday.
The SEnA is a mediation program that aims to provide a faster, fairer, inexpensive resolution of labor issues between employees and employers.
Ma. Zenaida Angara-Campita, DOLE-3 regional director, said their office spent an average of two days in the settlement of a request for assistance (RFA), the shortest average process cycle time among regional offices.
Of the 2,252 total requests filed in the region, Campita said the DOLE Clark Satellite Office settled the highest amount of monetary claims amounting to PHP65.4 million, benefitting 1,518 workers, followed by Bulacan Field Office with PHP40.5 million, claimed by 1,847 workers.
The Tarlac Field Office facilitated settlement of PHP13.4 million for 874 workers; Zambales Field Office -- PHP9.2 million for 718 workers; Pampanga Field Office -- PHP5.9 million for 432 workers; Nueva Ecija Field Office -- PHP6.8 million for 351 workers; Bataan Field Office -- PHP6 million for 685 workers; and Aurora Field Office -- PHP724,000 for 149 workers.
“Complaints are mostly on underpayment of wages, payment of separation pay and 13th month pay, non-coverage under mandatory social benefits, and termination/dismissal,” Campita said.
She added that DOLE-Central Luzon also accomplished a 99.2-percent settlement rate of labor disputes last year.
This high settlement rate, Campita said, can be attributed to the settlement of 2,235 RFAs out of 2,252 RFAs filed.
The remaining 17 were referred to NLRC (13 RFAs) and other government agencies (1 RFA) while 3 RFAs were dropped due to lack of interest of the requesting party.
Overall, Campita said the 2,252 filed RFAs were all disposed of, translating to the regional office’s 100- percent disposition rate.
“From an average of 3.8 days to settle in 2018, our 2019 scorecard has improved to only taking two days for a request to be settled on average. This improvement in the process is a result of our SEADOs’ hard work, and due credit is given to all of them,” she added. (PNA)
