MANILA – The Civil Service Commission (CSC) on Tuesday highlighted the need for government agencies to put in place measures that promote a healthy workplace, noting that a healthy public sector workforce is a productive workforce.
“We count on our civil servants to run the day-to-day operations of government. Amid the multitude of varying, complex needs of the Filipino people, we need to recognize the importance of employee health and wellness,” CSC Chairperson Karlo Nograles said in a statement.
He noted that employees who enjoy good health are more likely to deliver optimal performance in the workplace, not only because they have a better quality of life, but also because of the benefit of having lower risk from disease, illness, or injury.
“As the central human resource agency of the government, the CSC has placed premium on providing safe and healthy working conditions and promoting health practices among the country’s 1.8 million government workforce,” Nograles said.
He pointed out that several policies and programs have been instituted in the past to promote health and wellness in the public sector, among them Memorandum Circular 30 issued in 1994, which provides a checklist of reasonable working conditions covering such basics as potable water and adequate lighting.
This was supplemented in 1997 by the Policy on Working Conditions in the Workplace, which was revised in 2010. Other salient issuances on health and wellness include those on mandatory random drug testing and smoking prohibition in government offices.
Meanwhile, CSC Resolution 1901265 issued in October 2019 directs all government agencies to establish a Mental Health Program to address stigma and discrimination endured by people with mental health conditions.
A partnership with the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and the Department of Health (DOH) resulted in the formulation of CSC-DOH-DOLE Joint Memorandum Circular 1, s. 2020, which aims to institutionalize occupational safety and health in government workplaces to protect government workers from the dangers of injury, sickness, or death, and to prevent loss or damage of properties through the adoption of safe and healthy working conditions.
National framework on healthy workplaces
Just recently, the CSC teamed up anew with DOH and DOLE in formulating the National Policy Framework on the Promotion of Healthy Workplace, which seeks to promote, establish, and strengthen healthy workplaces in support of the implementation of the Universal Health Care Law.
Joint Administrative Order 2023-0001, which contains the framework, was signed on April 28 by Nograles, DOH officer in charge Maria Rosario Vergeire, and Labor Secretary Bienvenido Laguesma.
The framework sets directions and provides key strategies to guide the implementation of settings-based health promotion policies, plans, and programs for the Filipino workforce; and identifies the roles and responsibilities of key stakeholders in the promotion of healthy workplaces.
It also identifies priority areas or risk factors that all health promotion interventions in the workplace must focus on; and specifies that all health promotion interventions in the workplace must be guided by the following action areas: Developing Healthy Public Policies, Creating Supportive Environments, Developing Personal Skills, Strengthening Community Action, and Reorienting Health Services.
Nograles said the framework provides the groundwork for a purposive and holistic health agenda, and committed the CSC’s support to its implementation.
“While the framework opens new grounds for collaborations among all organizations here, we are all propelled by the greater vision of a healthy and productive workforce serving the Filipino,” he said.
According to the framework, the CSC, as a member of the National Technical Working Group on Healthy Workplace chaired by the DOH, shall coordinate the implementation of capacity-building activities in CSC offices and other workplace settings within the purview of the CSC; carry out information and advocacy campaigns for the public sector and other relevant stakeholders; provide relevant technical assistance and support in all phases of implementation of the framework; and conduct relevant monitoring and evaluation activities. (PNA)
