Palace Welcomes $1-Million Assistance Grant from International Labor Organization

The Palace on Sunday welcomed the $1-Million Technical Assistance Grant from the United States’ International Labor Organization (ILO) which will be utilized for the government’s new labor laws compliance system.

“This is a very welcome gift to the Philippines and will boost the implementation of the DOLE’s new labor laws compliance system, which President Aquino III himself had endorsed with his grant of 372 new plantilla item positions for labor laws compliance officers, who will be equipped with electronic gadgets to boost our capacity to ‘enforce all labor laws,” said Presidential Communication Operations Office Secretary Herminio Coloma, Jr., in a radio interview with dzRB Radyo ng Bayan.

According to Labor and Employment Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz, Washington has already announced the award of the technical assistance grant.

Coloma added that as of November 2014, a total of 69,749 establishments all over the country or 90 percent of the targeted establishments of 70,766 have been covered under the labor laws compliance system.

Of this number, 60,479 establishments covering 333,136 workers have received benefits amounting to 69.425-million pesos from plant-level restitution. (PCOO/PND (ag)