Visayas-wide labor summit Oct 28-29

CEBU, Philippines – Representatives from the different agencies of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) in three regions will meet during the 2010 Visayas-wide Summit on Labor and Employment on October 28-29.

The summit's primary objective is for the agencies to formulate the 2011-2016 Labor and Employment Agenda.

"It is an island-wide consultation covering Regions 6, 7, and 8. Its primary objective is to convene DOLE agencies, together with multipartite regional stakeholders, towards the formulation, validation and presentation of the 2011-2016 Labor and Employment Agenda," DOLE-7 director Elias Cayanong explained.

Participants to the summit are representatives from the Regional Development Councils of the Western, Central and Eastern Visayas regions, Regional Tripartite Industrial Peace Councils, DOLE Regional Coordinating Committee, Labor Tripartite Council in Education, and the civil society.

The summit expects to gather inputs from, and obtain commitments of, stakeholders toward Emergency Employment Scheme and a "Jobs Pact," which are among the agenda of the activity.

The Emergency Employment Scheme, for one, aims to help poor and unemployed workers improve their welfare and economic conditions by providing short-term work and income opportunities.

The Jobs Pact, on the other hand, aims at placing employment at the center of economic growth, a decent work in all aspects of labor policies and programs, Cayanong said.

All outputs will be presented during the 2010 National Summit on Labor and Employment on December 1. (FREEMAN)