DOLE TAV empowers employers

to comply with labor standards

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol Feb 22 (PIA) –It was not just 13th month pay, it also had a bonus in it.

This is what a laundry shop owner here in Tagbilaran City realized after she learned that she has given more than her employee deserved for his 13th month pay.

During the Department of Labor and Employment’s (DOLE) first of the many Technical Advisory Visit in 2024, which was at the Saulog Gym of the City Hall complex February 20, DOLE labor inspector Liezel Hadassah Cadua showed employers how to compute the 13th month pay, something that employer Ma. Luisa Saguirel thought was simply the basic salary.

Cadua’s discussion was among the inputs that DOLE and its allied industry and labor partners dished out during the first DOLE Technical Advisory Visit (TAV) to orient micro, small and medium enterprise (MSMe) employers and business owners of the agency’s task of ensuring effective implementation of the labor standards enforcement framework.

This is so that MSME establishments and workplaces build a culture of voluntary compliance with the labor standards, and protect workers by assuring their safety and just compensation, explains chief Labor and Employment Officer as wel as Bohol Field Office head Maria Eloida Cantona, CPA.

Under Articles 128 and 129 of the Labor Code of the Philippines, the DOLE is mandated to protect the labor force as the pillar of the economy, by ensuring fair and just working conditions, through observance of labor laws and social legislation which bring about safeguarded workers interests.

Top do this, the DOLE as agents of the secretary is mandated to inspect working premises to assess compliance with the labor laws and regulations.

This is further strengthened by DOLE Department Order No 238 series of 2023, assuring high levels of compliance with labor standards, occupational safety and health standards and other applicable legislation to ensure continuity and sustainability of compliance in all work places.

Moreover, to further expand the service, DOLE through Cadua detailed workers benefits which employers need to give, the 13th month pay, among others.

Saguirel, whose family owns a laundry shop along JA Clarin Street, Cogon District in Tagbilaran wanted to get things right as a good employer, that she, along with 55 other business owners employing less than 9 workers, signed up for the TAV held at the Tagbilaran City Hall’s Saulog Gym, February 20.

By law, 13th-month pay is simply an additional compensation given to the employees, one that is usually equivalent to at least 1/12 of an employee’s total basic salary in a year. That is, if he was hired in the entire 12 months, explained Cadua.

Now, I realized I gave more than the worker should have earned in his 13th month, Saguirel said.

She said without the TAV, she would never have known how to compute for the 13th month pay.

“There are workers who whimsically come to work anytime, without regard for business hours, and declare overtime, something I now know, is not allowable, unless the employers approve it,” she shared.

“Maayo ra gyud nga nay TAV,” (It is good that there is this TAV) Saguirel eagerly said.

As to the overpayment, she just laughed it off, adding, “pinaskohan na lang to nako niya,” (ill just consider it as a Christmas gift).

“TAV is a great venue for getting employers informed, we could not blame the government anymore if we are remiss, because we have been given proper and useful information,” also remarks 54 years old Grace Auguis, who keeps a 6 room apartment as her micro business.

At the TAV, employers also learned that they can get incentives for their businesses if they register it under the Barangay Micro Business Enterprise (BMBE) Law, explained John Jescio Liquit, a Department of Trade and Industry business counselor.

Being a BMBE registered MSME, they can avail of income tax exemption for income arising from the operation of the enterprise, for the first two years of operation, exemption from the coverage of the Minimum Wage Law except the same social security and health care benefits as other employees, priority to a special credit window set up specifically for the financing requirements of BMBEs, and technology transfer, production and management training, marketing assistance programs for BMBE beneficiaries, Liquit said. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)

CULTURE OF VOLUNTARY COMPLIANCE. To cultivate a culture of employer compliance with the labor standards, DOLE, through Chief LEO Maroa Eloida Cantona guided Cogon District micro entrepreneurs through advisory services and the distribution as well as self-assessment of the checklist on compliance with labor standards so they can be guided on coping up with their non-compliance based on the labor standards checklist. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)

NOW WE KNOW. Thanks to DOLE TAV, employers like Grace Auguis, who owns a 6 bedroom apartment now knows how she can get incentives and tax holidays if she registers her business with the BMBE Law. Behind her, line agencies give out advisory services and frontline operations, making the TAV a one stop shop. (PIABohol)