Baldoz Lauds DOLE Call Center Action Officers for Helping Disseminate New NCR Wage Order

Labor and Employment Secretary Rosalinda Dimapilis-Baldoz yesterday lauded the DOLE Call Center Action Officers for helping provide the right information about the new wage order for the National Capital Region as provided for in Wage Order No. NCR-19.
The DOLE Call Center served in March 2015 a total of 931 clients who wanted to know more about the new minimum wage for private sector workers in the National Capital Region.

“The DOLE Call Center’s task is vital to the Department of Labor and Employment’s information dissemination campaign to raise public awareness and understanding, and to educate workers and employers about voluntarily complying with the new wage order in the National Capital Region,” Baldoz said.

Baldoz, citing a report of Director Nicon F. Fameronag of the Labor Communications Office which supervises the DOLE Call Center, said majority or 63.1 percent of the queries addressed by the DOLE Call Center focused on the effectively date of the wage order, while 30.6 percent inquired about its implementing guidelines, and 6.2 percent asked about the minimum wage law exemption and wage distortion formula that will be used by companies.

Director Fameronag said the Call Center received a total of 5,292 calls and 5,876 queries in March 2015.

He said a big number of queries also centered on the pay rule for the Lenten holidays on April 2, 3 and 4, and for Araw ng Kagitingan on April 9, which totalled to 626.

As its response to callers clamouring for across-the-wage board increase, the DOLE Call Center echoed the Department’s core messages on the setting of minimum wages.

The Call Center’s Action Officers informed callers about Wage Order No. NCR-19, approved on 6 March 2015, and was published in the Philippine Star on 20 March 2015. It took effect 15 days after its publication, specifically, on 4 April 2015.

The new wage order mandates a P15/day basic wage increase, bringing the basic wage in Metro Manila to P466. In addition, it also retains the P15 per day cost-of-living allowance, or a total of P481 new minimum wage rate. On the other hand, workers in the agriculture sector, private hospitals with bed capacity of 100 or less, retail/service establishments employing 15 workers or less, and manufacturing establishments employing less than 10 workers will receive P429 basic wage, and P15 cost-of-living allowance, or a total of new minimum wage rate of P444.

The Call Center’s information drive through client assistance forms part of its wide range of frontline services for the Department of Labor and Employment.

The Call Center clients were also advised to file complaints for non-compliance with the new Wage Order at the DOLE-NCR Office or its Field Offices with corresponding telephone numbers: Quezon City – 4973002, Manila – 3029269, Makati/Pasay – 336-5062, PAPAMAMARISAN –6615042, MUNTAPARLAS – 8086165, and, CAMANAVA – 362-3187.

The DOLE Call Center with telephone number 02-5278000, operates from 6:00 A.M. to 9:30 P.M. on Mondays to Saturdays, on the motto, Serbisyong Magalang at Mahusay na Impormasyon sa Labor and Employment, or SMILE.

Source: www.dole.gov.ph