Oreta to DOLE: Punish delinquent employers

Opposition Sen. Teresa Aquino Oreta called on the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) Wednesday to "crack the whip" on more than 9,000 commercial establishments, many of them in Metro Manila, that have refused to pay last year’s mandated wage increase.

Oreta also urged the department to beef-up its inspection teams that monitor compliance with new labor rules, so the government could effectively address the severe lack of inspectors that is believed to have emboldened numerous commercial establishments in Metro Manila and elsewhere to ignore government directives on new minimum wages, overtime pay, cost of living allowance (COLA), and other benefits.

She made the call to the labor department over the weekend in reaction to reports that 9,395 companies, or a third of the 33,907 establishments that were inspected by the DOLE last year had not complied with the new minimum-wage rates. In Metro Manila alone, 396 or half of some 700 commercial establishments inspected last year, had defied the new wage law.

Director Forter Puguon of the Bureau of Working Conditions was quoted by the media earlier this week as saying that the increase in the number of wage law violators was due in part to the insufficiency of DOLE personnel for inspections all over the country.

"The DOLE should crack the whip on commercial establishments that have failed, if not refused outright, to give the correct wages and other benefits due their workers," Oreta said. "Otherwise, what use will laborers have for higher wage laws if their employers choose to ignore such supposedly worker-friendly DOLE directives?"

Oreta said it was also about time for Labor Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas to deploy a bigger number of labor inspectors nationwide, in the face of reports that the insufficient number of DOLE personnel monitoring compliance with new wage laws has encouraged more and more employers not to pay the higher rates.

She noted that the number of erring establishments could actually be far higher because, as pointed out by Puguon, only 42,698 firms were inspected last year because the DOLE only has 253 labor inspectors assigned in 15 regions. Of these, only 196 are actually conducting inspection because 57 of them are division heads or supervisors.