CITY OF SAN FERNANDO -- A total of 31,007 workers were regularized by 272 establishments in Central Luzon in 2018.

Department of Labor and Employment (Dole) regional director Zenaida Angara-Campita disclosed that 19,162 were voluntarily regularized by 174 establishments while the remaining 11,845 workers were regularized by 98 firms in compliance to the agency’s inspection visits.

“This is significantly higher than our accomplishment of 12,689 workers in 2017 and 10,010 workers regularized in 2016,” Angara-Campita said.

She added that the success is due to doubled efforts of their personnel in adopting various strategies to ensure that their target will be achieved.

“We have dispatched 33 labor laws compliance officers to conduct assessments to establishments to look into their compliance with the General Labor Standards and Occupational Safety and Health Standards, and to determine which of these are practicing prohibited working arrangements,” Angara-Campita explained.

Those who were found to be non-compliant were subjected to mandatory conferences and were assisted to comply with the standards.

“We would like to thank the private sector for heeding our call to regularize their workers. Security of tenure will be a prevailing concern of workers, and this will enable them to be more productive and to provide more for their families,” the official said.

She also expressed hopes that more establishments will realize the benefits of regularizing their workers and support the Duterte administration’s war on “endo”. (PR)