DOLE’S ’23 FOCUS: HELP FOR MICRO ENTERPRISES
BOOSTING support for micro enterprises and expanding skills training initiatives will be the focus of the government’s pandemic recovery roadmap which will start next year, according to the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).
The measures include focusing on the skills needs of 10 key employment generating sectors and the release of updated implementing rules and regulations for Republic Act No. 11058 or the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Law, which will ease its application for micro establishments.
At DOLE’S yearend press conference on Monday, Labor and Employment Secretary Bienvenido E. Laguesma disclosed they decided to zero-in on micro firms since these comprise the majority of the country’s businesses.
“We believe if we strengthen micro, small, and medium enterprises [MSME], they will be able to produce more jobs, which will increase the opportunities [of workers] to have a family income,” Laguesma said in Filipino.
Based on the latest Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) data, there are 850,127 micro establishments—companies with less than 10 workers -- nationwide. This is 88.77 percent of 957,620 businesses, as registered by DTI in 2020.
Priority sectors
LABOR Undersecretary Carmela I. Torres said among their initiatives to promote economic growth will be to address the demand requirements of establishments in line with the Philippine Development Plan 2023-2028, which was approved on Friday.
She said they coordinated with the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) to “align training regulations and competencies and requirements” of 10 priority sectors.
“We have a roadmap, which we developed with TESDA to prioritize the 10 key employment sectors, which we have identified,” Torres said.
The sectors are agriculture, health, tourism, manufacturing, transportation and logistics, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and Information Technology-business Process Management (IT-BPM), education, creative industries, energy and construction.
Torres said TESDA will create 15 to 17 “innovation centers” to provide the needed skilled workers of the said sectors.
Graduates from these centers will be then provided employment facilitation through the Public Employment Service Office (PESO) or official job-search website of the government, Philjobnet.
Updated IRR
TO help the pandemic recovery of the said MSMES, Labor Undersecretary Benjo M. Benavidez said they are now working on an amended IRR of the OSH Law of 2018 by next year.
Under the proposed new IRR, micro firms will not face an immediate fine in case they are found to have violated provisions of the OSH Law.
Instead, they will be issued a warning and will be given time to comply through “technical assistance visits.”
It also includes allowing a building with multiple MSMES to have a designated first aider and safety officer and providing free training.
“We saw in the implementation of the OSH standards in previous years that small firms have a hard time complying with the said standards, that is why we are making specific standards for them,” Benavidez said.
Laguesma said the Occupational Safety and Health Center (OHSC) and the Employees’ Compensation Commission (ECC) will also launch a new program to provide free antigen testing for workers of MSMES.
Non-monetary aid
DOLE said the government opted to prioritize giving non-monetary support for MSMES instead of the proposed cash aid, such as the proposed wage subsidy by labor groups, due to limited government resources.
Benavidez noted that while the wage subsidy is part of the social protection floor of the government, it is not expected to be implemented next year.
“There is no specific line item on wage subsidy in the [2023] GA A [General Appropriations Act]. But there are programs to help the enterprises get back on their feet,” Benavidez told Businessmirror in a Viber message.