Better pay and protection await movie and television workers with the Department of Labor and Employment’s (DOLE) issuance of the implementing rules of the Republic Act 11996 or the Eddie Garcia Law, Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Raymund Villafuerte said.
Villafuerte also said that the implementing rules provide for stronger safeguards in the workplace and better compensation, especially for ordinary movie and TV workers.
“With the DOLE’s recent issuance of the IRR of the Eddie Garcia Act, we look forward to our actors and other workers in the film and TV industry soon having a safer environment in their workplace along with proper compensation and other benefits for their unconventional work schedules,” Villafuerte, a principal author of RA 11996, said.
Villafuerte said, “This law, as provided for in the labor protection features of the DOLE-issued IRR, will from hereon benefit all industry workers, including independent contractors hired to do production work and other services like distribution and exhibition of content, and to include out-of-town shoots and/or lock-in production work that require them to stay in location sites for 24 hours straight or even for several days or months.”
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. signed last May RA 11996, the approved final House version (House Bill 1270) of which had consolidated six similar bills, including the lead HB 1270 that was principally authored by Villafuerte.
In a recent statement, Labor Secretary Bienvenido Laguesma said that Department Order 246, series of 2024, which was issued last Sept. 30, provides for the IRR of RA 11996 to include “the protection of labor rights, promotion of decent work, and equality of employment opportunities for all movie and television industry workers.”
