Ms. Celeste M. Valderrama, Director, International Labor Affairs Bureau, Department of Labor and Employment, Philippines, discusses how challenges are worked with and overcome (December, 2011).

Can you speak of management challenges and motivations?

“Keeping my people who are skilled already in this area of concern is a major challenge, but we do appreciate the support of the ILO in this area because they provide us with training opportunities, but it’s quite limited, so even the number of people who are really trained to do the job is… We have to do it just one person at a time, right? … I don’t know, maybe it’s the commitment. Maybe they realize that the motivation is really knowing that there is no one else who can do this type of job. [laugh], and also knowing that we cannot afford to put a Government in an embarrassing position. The high level mission that came out after the finding has impressed on us more than ever the importance of paying details… of paying attention to the details of the report, so that we can ensure that , hmmmm… the evaluation by the Committee of Experts is based on a more complete, more comprehensive data. That is why our management, our leaders, put a lot of premium on this area of concern. But it’s not only the reportorial obligation, it’s not only commitment to the standards, compliance to the standards, it recognizes the value of international labour standards, because we have a lot of people everywhere overseas so we can’t do it just by ourselves. We should be able to do it together with the rest of the world.”

Special thanks got to the Honorable Secretary of Labor and Employment of the Philippines, and the Director and staff of the International Labor Affairs Bureau of the Department of Labor of the Philippines for their generous cooperation in the production of this video.

Ms. Catherine Abayao, Labor and Employment Officer, International Relations and Cooperation Division, Department of Labor and Employment, Philippines describes the benefit of established tripartite structures and high level support (December, 2011).

Institutionalized tripartite arrangements and high-level support

“Hi, I am Catherine Duladul and I work with Miss Delia and the International Labour Standards division and I have been with this division for seven years now. I want to share here the successes or the success that we have here in the department in producing our report to the ILO on time. First, because we have an established tripartite structure as explained by my colleagues a while ago. We have an institutionalized tripartite structure and an executive order. It is a policy making body where all our reports to the ILO are subjected to this tripartite body. And also one more thing here is that our official, the secretary herself is also very interested in ILO matters. She is knowledgeable in how ILO standards are being adapted and then when a certain country has ratified a certain convention. She knows the obligations that a ratifying State has too. So… in our case we had to work well and submit our reports on time because our heads are aware of our obligations.”

Special thanks go to the Honorable Secretary of Labor and Employment of the Philippines, and the Director and staff of the International Labor Affairs Bureau of the Department of Labor of the Philippines for their generous cooperation in the production of this video.

Ms. Dorine Monica Brooks, Director, International Labour Agencies and Information, ILO Desk Officer, Ministry of Labour and Social Security, Jamaica describes the benefit of operational planning.

“Each Section of the Ministry of Labour and Social Security is required to submit a yearly operational plan, or operational work plan, to its Monitoring and Planning Unit. The proposed work schedule is taken into account, and thereafter performance reviews are held on a quarterly basis. It is here that all Offices, including that of the ILO Desk, are required to outline all work tasks accomplished in any given period. This exercised our features, prompting offices and departments, so increasing efforts in delivering the required work output for each period.”

Ms. Gloria Beatriz Gaviria Ramos, Chief, Oficina de Cooperación y Relaciones Internacionales, Ministerio del Trabajo, Colombia describes the benefit of a single office responsible for coordination.

Ms. Celeste M. Valderrama, Director, International Labor Affairs Bureau, Department of Labor and Employment, Philippines, discusses the importance of managing reporting processes (December, 2011).

What can be said about management of reporting?

“In this case, the management system is really important in doing this function. If you have an efficient system, if you have clear procedures and mandate and objectives [laugh] and it is clear to your people, you are able to get the information that you need. I think if you really think about it, monitoring work is a management function. The only difference is the appreciation of its value, what is the report for and if people in the management that can appreciate that, can understand that, then even the quantity and the quality of the reports will be able to meet that kind of requirement. My observation is that a person who has been involved, who has an extensive exposure is able to focus the report on what matters. I think our people can ably do their job because number one they are knowledgeable about the requirements, they are also aware of the implication if they don’t comply,[laugh] and then of course the Department has an appreciation that our commitment will not only be down to our productivity here in the Philippines but for people working overseas.”

Special thanks go to the Honorable Secretary of Labor and Employment of the Philippines, and the Director and staff of the International Labor Affairs Bureau of the Department of Labor of the Philippines for their generous cooperation in the production of this video.

In Panama, ILS-responsible management promote training in ILS for other officials.

It has been reported that in Panama ILS-responsible managers promote the training of government officials outside the scope of their immediate management responsibility with a view to improving inter-departmental and inter-ministerial understanding.

Ms. Celeste M. Valderrama, Director, International Labor Affairs Bureau, Department of Labor and Employment, Philippines, discusses the importance of ILS and ILS reporting for Philippines’ overseas workers (December, 2011).

A role played by overseas workers in reporting awareness

“I might say that the fact that we have a lot of Filipinos working overseas emphasizes or puts emphasis to our mandate on overseas employment but not only in terms of programs that we are providing them but also the host country policy. So at the level of policy we are very much aware that it is through multilateral cooperation, bilateral cooperation that we can succeed in bringing about improvements in the conditions of our workers in bringing about more employment opportunities for them in the fields that they have chosen. In so many ways ILO is part of all this cooperation program, for most of which are the international labor standards. When a country, the host country has ratified this Convention, for example the migrant workers’ Convention, then we are sure that they will be, that they will care for our workers as much as we care for them. So they also of course provide a lot of technical support on our work concerning migrant workers and all the other international labour standards.”

Special thanks go to the Honorable Secretary of Labor and Employment of the Philippines, and the Director and staff of the International Labor Affairs Bureau of the Department of Labor of the Philippines for their generous cooperation in the production of this video.

In Macau, those responsible for ILS reporting make a report on matters that need follow up after reporting is completed.

In Zimbabwe, a simple, timely, planning meeting on ILS issues is held for relevant personnel.