Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2020, published 109th ILC session (2021)

Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87) - Philippines (Ratification: 1953)

Article 3 of the Convention. Right of workers’ organizations to organize their administration and activities and to formulate their programmes without interference by the public authorities. In its previous comments, the Committee requested the Government to provide statistics on the number and nature of cases dealt with by the Single Entry Approach Program (SEnA) institutionalized to de-judicialize the dispute-settlement procedures and foster fair, speedy and inexpensive labour justice. The Committee notes the information provided by the Government to the Committee on Freedom of Association (see 391st Report, October 2019, Case No. 2745, paragraph 44), indicating that the SEnA, which provides for an institutionalized 30-day mandatory conciliation-mediation service on all individual and collective labour and employment disputes as the first approach, resulted in a decline in the number of assumption of jurisdiction cases and cases certified for compulsory arbitration, because it accorded workers and employers an option for less conflictual, speedy, inexpensive and efficient settlement or resolution of money claims and labour issues. According to the Government, the SEnA has been instrumental in resolving issues arising from labour and employment disputes and in disencumbering the case dockets of compulsory arbitration, as well as inspection cases at the Department of Labour and Employment (DOLE) Offices. The Government provides statistics in this regard, showing that as the number of settled requests for assistance under the SEnA increased, the number of cases referred to compulsory arbitration generally decreased. The supplementary statistics provided by the Government for 2019 and 2020 further show that the requests for assistance under the programme concerned the following labour issues: violations of labour standards (non-payment of wages, overtime pay, holiday pay, etc.), money claims (non-payment of disability allowance, reimbursement of medical expenses, prohibited transfer or demotion, etc.), illegal dismissal claims (non-payment of separation pay, forced resignation, illegal lock-out, etc.), other grievances (contract violations, non-implementation of a collective bargaining agreement, etc.) and unfair labour practices (anti-union discrimination, union busting, formation of a company-dominated union, etc.). While recalling that, as previously indicated by the Government, notices of strike and lockout are exempt from its coverage, the Committee takes note of the above information regarding rapid and cost-effective resolution of specific labour-related disputes and requests the Government to continue to provide detailed information on the SEnA, including information on requests for assistance during the COVID-19 pandemic and results obtained in response to those requests.