Ms. Maria Consuela Baki, Mediator/Arbiter, Bureau of Labor Relations, Department of Labor and Employment, Philippines, describes consultative processes from a perspective outside of that of the bureau directly responsible for preparing reports (December, 2011).

A view of consultations from a collaborating Bureau

“Hi, I am Maria Consula Baki, I am a Mediator/Arbiter of the Bureau of Labor Relations of DOLE. The Bureau of Labor Relations work with ILAB relative to contentions of the International Labour Organization, that’s why we were invited for this session.

We are the tripartite monitoring body of the Department of labor and with that we act as the secretariat for the National Tripartite Industrial Peace Council. We calendar consultations with both the employers’ sector and the workers’ sector. We try to meet with the sectors every month or as may be necessary because of circumstances that may arise, so if there is a report that is needed by the ILO, we try to conduct meetings with the sectors as much as necessary. As the secretariat for the National Tripartite Industrial Peace Council, we provide ILAB with reports that we collect from other government agencies as well. Everything pertaining to international labour affairs or anything pertaining to conventions of the ILO we coordinate with ILAB and then if there is a contention like for the domestic work or the maritime labour convention, the ILAB tries to invite us for possible consultations and then they forward us the convention and then we set that convention for consultation with the labour sector and the workers sector through the TIPC. We have a very close coordination because I think the Department of labor is not only concerned with labour matters locally but also we situate that we take care of the labour factor overseas, so we see the importance of coordinating with ILAB for us to be able to formulate policies that are both applicable both local and overseas, applicable to both local and overseas workers as well. The fact that we have a lot of overseas workers I think it is the general mandate of the department of labor to formulate policies that protect both its local and overseas workers so through coordinating with ILAB, we are able to foresee changes in the working conditions outside of the country and then we can actually address them from here.”

Special thanks to the 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. Delia S. Palomar, Chief Labor and Employment Officer, International Relations and Cooperation Division, Department of Labor and Employment, Philippines, describes the consultation process followed in the Philippines (December, 2011).

The flow of consultation with government and with the social partners

“So for the past six years we have been doing quite well in our reporting obligations due to the fact that we subjected our reports to tripartite consultation, aside from the government consultation that we have upon the first draft. So after we do our first draft and consulted government organizations, we submit our report to the technical Executive committee of the tripartite industrial peace council for their inputs and their comments and as soon as we get their comments, we consolidate all of them into a draft Philippines report which is submitted to the ILO.

For ILS reporting, we… the consultation process takes upon receiving the request from the ILO,  we coordinate with the concerned agencies, we write them a letter requesting for their inputs on the reports being requested by the ILO. As soon as we receive their inputs, we prepare them and transmit them, transmit to them (the agencies) through email for validation, after which we call them for a meeting, a consultation meeting to validate their responses. And also if other agencies have inputs to contribute on those reports.

In cases where we don’t have the answers we need, we try to research and we draft the replies and send it to the concerned officers for validation if we… huh if that is the correct reply and if they have more inputs to add. But sometimes that is one of the challenges that we are having in preparing the reports due to the various loads of other officers but as much as possible we try to submit to them the report for their proper answer.”

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. 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. Delia S. Palomar, Chief Labor and Employment Officer, International Relations and Cooperation Division, Department of Labor and Employment, Philippines, describes how submission to the competent national authorities of newly adopted ILS is effectuated (December, 2011).

Arrangements for submission to the competent national authorities

“First submission to the competent authorities. As soon as we receive the document from the ILO requesting to the transmitted to National competent authorities we draft the memo or the letter to the Office of the Senate president and the Speaker of the House citing the importance of the convention and referring it to them for future legislation. So upon transmitting the text of the convention or the recommendation, we solicit the acknowledgement or whatever decisions the Senate or Congress will take into account for the said conventions. Like right now we just received the acknowledgement receipt from the House of Representatives acknowledging that they have received the text of the domestic work convention. In the case of the Domestic work Convention, we are in close coordination with the national competent authorities because we also consulted them for its certification and we indicated in our transmittal letter that the same is being referred to them because there is an action to ratify the convention. But in most cases we just notify them that there is a new convention or a new international instrument that should be taken into account in future legislation. In submitting the instrument to competent authorities, we indicate that it is in compliance with our obligation as a member State of the ILO and such instrument could be considered in their drafting of bills.”

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

“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.

Ms. Celeste M. Valderrama, Director, International Labor Affairs Bureau, Department of Labor and Employment, Philippines, describes how legal expertise is accessed on an “as-needed” basis (December, 2011).

“In previous years in the history of the ILAB, the office used to be ILAD, there were lawyers who were part of the personnel handling the division, the division handling the ILS. But they have left, they are gone now and we cannot anymore hire lawyers. So what do we do? With the limited resources, with the limited personnel that we have, we engage lawyers from all the other bureaus and so they provide a substantial… the substance to the report. We have lawyers from the Bureau of Labor relations, from the Bureau of Working Conditions, from the PRC for instance and the POEA. They are the ones handling the substantive reporting. I cannot really say do I need a lawyer, but a lawyer would be good, a lawyer would be helpful to do this ILS work here in this division, but if there is none, then we can accept the services of lawyers within the Department also, who provide the input to the report that we submit. I think the very controversial part of the report pertains to freedom of association and collective bargaining, I think for those areas we need a lawyer and then for that the Bureau of Labor relations provide that kind of  inputs.”

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. Celeste M. Valderrama, Director, International Labor Affairs Bureau, Department of Labor and Employment, Philippines, describes the organization of the authority responsible for ILS and ILS reporting (December, 2011).

“I am Maria Celeste Valderrama and I head the International Labor Affairs Bureau which handles the International Labour Organization’s concerns like compliance to the international labour standards, as well as of course our reportorial obligations under the ILO constitution. The International labor affairs bureau under the Department of Labor and Employment has four major functions. One is ensuring our commitment under the ILO, second is maintaining our technical cooperation program with multilateral, bilateral and other international organizations and the third is supervising a group of labor attachés posted in about 38 posts abroad. Our labor posts actually provide services to the Filipino workers who are overseas, numbering… it’s about, it’s estimated at about 8 millions. We also have a group which handles the resource requirements of these posts, which is still a fairly large responsibility on our part. To do our work in ensuring that we are able to comply with the reportorial obligations of the ILS, we coordinate quiet extensively with our frontline officers with other bureaus handling the major programs of the department. ILAB has a personnel complement of 24 people and five of them take charge of the international labour standards monitoring. About seven of the remaining 19 people take charge of Middle East affairs, about seven handle Asia and the Pacific affairs and then we have another group handling Europe and America. So three operational units plus one group handling multilateral cooperation. They are the ones handling the ILS and the ILO concerns… All of the ILO concerns.”

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.