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).

“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.

In Bahrain, ILS reporting work is handled as group work.
In Bahrain, ILS reporting tasks are handled in groups. This makes it possible for group members to share tasks and follow-up when other group members are not able to on account of other work assignments.

In Tajikistan, the social partners are briefed when the ILS specialist from DWT/CO Office visits.

In Tajikistan, it is reported that when the ILO specialist on ILS visits the country, meetings are arranged for briefing tripartite partners on improving the quality of reports on ILS application.

In addition to briefing government officials, ILS specialists can brief and train the social partners in reporting processes. This may improve their responsiveness as well as the quality of their involvement in ILS reporting.

Ms. Catherine Abayao, Labor and Employment Officer, International Relations and Cooperation Division, Department of Labor and Employment, Philippines, describes the use of employee performance commitments (December, 2011).

“Here in the Department also, we have an annual, how do you call this, employee performance commitment where we are being rated by our supervisors on how we are delivering our work or how are we performing, so like for example here in 2000 I’m holding a document from 2009 wherein I committed to… It is stated here that I commit to achieve the following targets: submission of compliance reports to the ILO so it mentions specifically here ratifying conventions, and ratified conventions ILO questionnaires if there are any ILO cases. So it’s included here in my commitment that I am going to perform these tasks. So failure to comply with these or failure to meet these targets, there would be a corresponding, huh, what do you call that, huh deduction on your performance rating. This maybe one of our motivation on improving our work.”

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, training has been held on ILS for persons in the Labour Affairs Bureau who are not responsible for ILS matters.

In Macau, a benefit is seen from training staff who are not directly responsible for ILS matters on the ILO fundamental Conventions which are applicable in the Special Administrative Region.

In Panama, those benefiting from ILS training train others on return.

It is reported that in Panama, officials who are able to benefit from training on ILS are obliged to train others in government service on return. The knowledge received by one is thus transferred to many.

In Macau, new staff is trained on ILS immediately

In Macau, when a new colleague comes into the team that has responsibilities for ILS, he or she is trained immediately on ILS reporting, especially reporting procedures and the Conventions which are binding on the Special Administrative Region.

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.

In Macau, substitute staff is trained in anticipation maternity leave being taken.

In Macau, when a ILS-responsible person is going to be on maternity leave, staff charged with taking up her takes in substitution during the leave are trained. This is to make sure that the staff can properly do the work of the colleague on maternity leave.

In Macau, staffers are kept aware of new additions to the ILO’s website.

In Macau, the head of the ILS-responsible Department systematically lets staff know of new information placed on the ILO’s website (www.ilo.org). This has good results for strengthening knowledge of ILS developments within the ILO. It also makes it possible to keep up on training offerings that might be beneficial to ILS-responsible colleagues.