DOLE suspends labor inspection ops for December to finish pending cases

Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III has suspended his department's labor inspection activities for December in a bid to let personnel finish all pending labor standard cases and mount the inspection program for 2020.

The suspension took effect nationwide on the first day of December, according to Administrative Order No. 495, Series of 2019, the department said in a statement.

All regional directors were instructed to make sure that before the year ends, all pending results of the previously conducted inspections are already posted on the DOLES's management information system.

Further, all mobile gadgets that were used in inspection activities will undergo audit.

Complaint inspections; occupational safety and health standards (OSHS) investigations; and technical safety inspections are exempted from the order.

Probe on any establishment or industry may still be conducted as directed by Bello.

Regular routine inspections will resume once the 2020 General Authority for Labor Inspectors is issued, the DOLE said.

The Labor Department's inspectors covered over 57,000 establishments involving 2.3 million workers, as of September 2019.

Outdated employment records, non-payment of service incentive leaves, non-coverage of employees in social welfare agencies, and non-remittance of social security contributions were among the labor violations observed.

The absence of occupational safety and health (OSH) personnel in some workplaces and the lack of OSH seminars for laborers were also noted. — Dona Magsino/BM, GMA News