The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) will suspend all labor inspection activities in December to focus on pending labor standards cases for the year and preparing the inspection program for 2023.
Labor Secretary Bienvenido Laguesma issued Administrative Order No. 342, directing all DOLE regional directors to temporarily cease all labor inspections in their respective regions starting December 1.
Exempted from the suspension, however, are complaint inspections; Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) standards investigations; technical safety inspections, such as inspection of boilers, pressure vessels, and mechanical and electrical wiring installation; and other inspection activities as directed by the DOLE Secretary.
During the period of suspension, Laguesma encouraged the DOLE regional offices to conduct training activities, such as Level 1A: Basic Course for Labor Inspectors.
“This is to ensure that the labor inspectorate is updated with the latest issuances and are highly skilled and equipped to perform their duties in enforcing labor laws and OSH standards,” Laguesma said.
The DOLE regional directors were also tasked to ensure that all results of inspections were uploaded in the Labor Inspection–Management Information System (MIS) before the end of December, while the Regional MIS focal persons are directed to conduct an inventory of all mobile gadgets and data plan subscriptions used for inspection activities.
As of October 31, a total of 74,945 establishments were inspected by the DOLE labor inspectors.
The initial compliance rate is 78.08 percent on general labor standards, 53.96 percent on OSHS, and 94.49 percent on minimum wage.
After the inspected establishments have implemented the necessary corrections, the compliance rate is at 88.24 percent on general labor standards and 72.61 percent on OSHS.
Among the notable violations of general labor standards pertain to record-keeping, Pag-IBIG coverage and remittances, PhilHealth coverage, and SSS coverage.