by Ben Moses Ebreo

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya (26 October) -- Labor union representatives in Cagayan Valley region recently supported the call of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to amend the more than three-decade old Labor Code of the Philippines (LCP).

Grace Ursua, DOLE officer-in-charge for Cagayan Valley said the proposed amendments to the LCP were timely with the lengthy existence of the country's monumental code.

"These amendments are needed to enable the LCP provisions to be more receptive to the needs of both management and laborers in the private sector considering the economic influences of the 21st century," Ursua said in a statement.

Ursua said DOLE recently conducted two successive consultations attended by representatives of labor unions from electric cooperatives, bottling companies and colleges and universities in the region.

She said it was during those two activities that specific issues and concerns on several salient features of the LCP were crafted with innovative proposals necessary for the comprehensive review of the code.

Among the proposed amendments made were; inclusion of a provision to penalize officials handling labor cases for their failure to decide within the mandated time frame without any justifiable reason; lowering of the optional retirement age of 60.

A separate age case for linemen such as 45 year-retirement age; a provision to exempt retirement benefits regardless of the age of the retiree from tax payments and increase the retirement computation from one half month pay for every year of service to one month pay for every year of service exclusive of all other benefits to be included in the computation; increaseof the Service Incentive Leave from 5 to 12 days;

increase of the prescription period in filing of money claim cases from three to five years; increase in the percentage of computing premium pays and exemption from tax payments like the overtime, night shift differential, rest day pay, regular holiday pay and others; inclusion in the code the ECC, SSS, and GSIS laws(like proof of remittances, maternity benefits, paternity benefits, etc.);

incorporation/inclusion in the code of the compressed work week; well-defined provision for the security of tenure especially on matters concerning dismissal and contract-out positions occupied by the regular employees under D.O 18-02 and the 5 to 6 months contractualization of employees and the incorporation in the labor code the anti-illegal recruitment campaign laws.