Abstracts of Pilot Area Social Dialogue Experiences (Philippines)

Department of Education Central Office1 Social dialogue (SD) as a task for the agency was not warmly received at first; the major consideration was who among the personnel has the mandate to implement it? More so, where will the budget be sourced in order to support the SD promotion? But at the end of the day, all these hardly matter considering the fact that there is a bigger concern at hand that is the environmental risk of being located on a fault line. Everyone in the agency knows that the country lies in earthquake sensitive plates and that a major fault line straddles its office building. To address the issue and in keeping with the occupational health and safety of its employees, the DepEd began to develop its Disaster Risk Reduction Resource Manual (DRRRM). The Manual covers, not only the health and safety of the agencys Central Office Staff but also all DepEd regional offices and public elementary and high schools all over the country. The idea is for users of the Manual to learn how organize disaster preparedness and post disaster capabilities, including capacity of schools to serve as evacuation centres during calamites. In the series of workshops conducted to produce the DRRRM, the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) at that time recommended the establishment of an Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Committee and an Incident Command System (ICS) within the agency. The committees will be designed to quickly respond to calamities/disaster or any similar occurrences, and develop plans and programmes to possibly eliminate human and /or man-made hazards.

But the DepEd Central Office Employees Union did not readily embrace the recommendation that was for almost two years consigned to non action on the part of the Union and DepEd management. Meetings were then organized between employees and the agency head resulting in no less than a request from Secretary Jesli Lapuz for a comprehensive plan on calamity and disaster preparedness. Through these social dialogues, the Secretary understood the urgency of the occupational health and safety programmes. He proceeded to have the DepEd Administrative Service to organize the Calamity and Disaster Preparedness Officers and Members. A Fire Safety and Hazard Control Seminar was the first activity that jumpstarted the OSH activities. Little by little, funds made available were spent on safety seminars and equipment. In the process, the
1

This article is based on a written account by Zenaida M. de Vera, Administrative Officer at the Department of Education Central Office.

management recognized the importance of keeping a readily available group with life saving knowledge and skills. In addition to these capacity building seminars, orientation and drills were carried out together with central office employees. Also, equipment like a fire truck with ladder was provided to the teams. With the continuing social dialogue between management and staff, the OSH committee was formally organized. Part of formalizing the organization of the OSH was the conduct of the Social Dialogue and OSH Capability Training Seminars for DepEd Marshals and Coordinators for three groups of participants in the central office held on July 2011. This same activity is planned to be conducted at the regional offices and participating schools throughout the nation. From this experience, there are some points worth noting: First, introducing SD entails a lot of patience to take it to a higher level of acceptance. In the case of DepEd central office, acceptance had some push from environmental realities and increased awareness, e.g. fault line location of the office, coupled by news of recent earthquakes in New Zealand and Japan. Second, there must be sufficient observable activities to help introduce SD to the management, and to ensure that these are effective and convincing enough so that the importance of SD will be imbibed not only by the management but also by the staff. In this instance, the development of the DRRRM Manual, the training workshops of OSH officers and marshals, and the general office-wide drills provided the needed evidence. Third, there should be wide dissemination of information on the relationship of SD and OSH concepts; so as to further enable those affected to understand and appreciate them, particularly those in the management side. Deeper appreciation among management people is expected to facilitate the funds required of the SD processes. This is quite important in DepEd because the activities should cover not only the central office but also the regional offices and schools.

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Department of Health Central Office2 In the Department of Health, the issue on occupational health is paramount for obvious reasons. Internal to the organization is the fact that health workers are exposed to more risks in their jobs, such as communicable diseases and sharp implements in their normal course of work amplify those risks. It was good timing that social dialogue was introduced, adopting the issue of occupational health. As described by the article writers: The health sector is one of the neglected groups in the working population which is not given the needed priority when it comes to program or services on occupational health and safety. The healthcare workers are undeniably more exposed to hazardous working environment compared to their counterparts in the industry sector. Their prolonged and continuous exposures to infectious diseases and other health risks inherent in working in the healthcare facility make them highly vulnerable to injury, sickness and even death. However due to social dialogue experiences, health workers in all types of occupations are entitled to a healthy and safe working place, humane working environment, protection from hazards and risks associated with their occupation which is also in consonance with the provisions stipulated under the rules and regulations governing the Magna Carta of Public Health Workers (RA 7305), the Occupational Safety and Health Standards under the Labor Code of the Philippines, the Implementing Rules and Regulation of Chapter VII on Industrial Hygiene under the Sanitation Code of the Philippines, the Civil Service Commission and the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (RA 7875).3 Two objectives were defined at the DOH central office when they partnered with the Danish Trade Union Council for International Development Cooperation (LO/FTF Council). They sought to promote social dialogue to improve working conditions for health workers and to create good management employee relations that will result in quality public service. Under the new governments Kalusugan Pangkalahatan or universal health care for all, the DOH needed to formalize its policy guidelines on occupational health and safety (OHS) of public health workers. An OSH committee was organized in early 2011 at the DOH. This committee, through the social dialogue project, held a series of consultative meetings / workshops with other health partner organizations, such as the: Occupational Health Nurses Association of the Philippines, DOLEOccupational Safety and Health Center, Philippine Heart Center, UP College of Public Health, Philippine Health Insurance Corporation and Civil Service Commission. The meetings/workshops resulted in a draft Administrative Order (AO) from the Secretary of Health Hon. Enrique Ona addressing the concerns of health workers, and recommends social dialogue as an instrument towards successfully implementing and sustaining the universal health care campaign. ***ends***

2 3

From an account by Primo Prado, Ann Cheriese Roque, and Rolando Palapar, Department of Health central office Prado, et. al., op cit.

Tipas Elementary School (Main Campus, Taguig City) The Tipas Elementary School in Taguig City is a typical government run public school having similar problems as other schools throughout the country, particularly the lack of teachers and insufficient infrastructure. More students attend school every school year, while the number of teachers remains the same. There is often an overload of students, from 50 to 65 in a classroom that can only hold ideally about 40 students for an optimum learning environment. Classrooms have not been built to respond to increasing number of students and teachers become overworked due to the practice of holding several class sessions or combinations of class sessions. When the Alliance Project on Social Dialogue began in Tipas Elementary School, there was resistance due to misconceptions and wrong impressions. However, the close link between Social Dialogue and Occupational Health and Safety, and how the former can advance workers and management concerns on OSH created an immediate favourable transformation and acceptance. The OSH committee in the school was set up and activated. Using different forms of social dialogues (a series of meetings, conferences attended by both school management and faculty) enabled the Committee Members to identify the following OSH issues which so far had been addressed: a. b. c. d. Painting of glass windows, funded by the GPTA to minimize the penetration of sunlight to the affected classrooms Procurement of additional electric fan units for 26 classrooms, after several consultations with the TESAA alumni officers. Installation of fabricated classroom locks to avoid burglary, funded by the school MOOE budget after a series of meetings with the principal. Procurement of 3 additional air conditioning units, budget was carefully planned and allotted by the management just to address the poor ventilation among the 3 ancillary centres (feeding, library, and clinic). Construction of hand washing area by the GPTA as proposed by the OSH committee to promote water sanitation and hygiene awareness among pupils in different grade levels. Special Study Circle Program with the principal, scheduled daily within a week by the levels note: Study Circle Program - adopted school consultation program designed to let every grade level to talk directly with the principal concerning grade level problems and issues for immediate problem resolutions.

e. f.

g.

Other matters and issues between the management and rank-in-file were settled in a system of direct access to the principal's office open door system by making the social dialogue process a part of the culture of school governance

Social Dialogue Awareness Raising activities at Tipas were extended to peripheral schools and faculty members through the Taguig Public School Teachers Association, upon the assumption of a former faculty member as the federation president. The application of social dialogue concepts and practices at the Division level was approved by the Local School Board Committee and eventually by the City Mayor of Taguig City.

One of the most significant accomplishments of social dialogue at the Taguig division level was the approval of the Teachers Association resolution that provided an increase in the honorarium of educators from Php 2,000.00 to Php 3,000.00 every quarter. ***ends*

Valenzuela Medical Center (Valenzuela City) There is no existing employees organization VMC although there have been efforts to form one in the past. There also is no Labour-Management Committee that exists within VMC. Even their Grievance Committee is not functional, since no complaints submitted to the Committee has ever been acted upon. In 2009, the VMC became a participant in the second phase of the Strategic Alliance Project on Social Dialogue. The SD Project assessment of VMC was done using questions that were asked regarding social dialogue processes and OSH initiatives in the hospital. During the process, agreements were achieved and the past plans were enhanced and finalized. The Chief of Hospital, Dr. Mario Panay said that VMH was able to negotiate with the Local Government Unit of Valenzuela regarding the construction of a hospital annex building and therefore improve the working condition of the hospital personnel and the quality of services they are rendering to the people of Valenzuela. The response had been enthusiastic since then. Immediately, the hospital management called a General Assembly of all its employees and officers were elected to constitute the SD committee. This committee has been authorized by the VMC management to represent the rank and file. The VMC management responded quickly to the issues and concerns that were presented, especially the internal concerns. These included: issuance of monthly pay slips, timely payroll processing for contractual employees, additional computers and air conditioning for staff, and the construction of infirmary wards for employees. Also, the renovation and repair of hospital premises, the annual physical check up of employees, and replacement of modern office furniture for the comfort of the staff were all prioritized. For The clients, the following were also given priority: additional chairs for the patient waiting room, relocation of executive and administrative offices to another building to give way to more hospital rooms in the main building, and installation of proper directional signs for patients and their companions. Employees were likewise provided with seminars on stress management. The renovation of the hospitals safety features, such as fire alarms, smoke and heat detection systems, fire sprinkler systems, replacement of the old ceiling with fire retardant materials, and a sewage treatment facility are currently being undertaken. The VMC management has taken one step higher in their SD practice by being able to push the Department of Health to construct additional buildings to serve more patients.