DOLE suspends labor compliance inspections to avoid suspicions of bribery

All inspections of Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) regional offices for the enforcement of labor laws will be suspended from December 8 to January 7, Labor Undersecretary Joel Maglungsod announced Tuesday.

Usec Joel Maglungsod said they suspended the inspection of DOLE regional offices for the enforcement of the labor laws from December 8 to January 7 to avoid chances of heightened bribery during the holiday season. For "delicadeza". pic.twitter.com/BHnSRgZZqM

— Rie Takumi (@rie_takumi) November 21, 2017

At a press briefing, Maglungsod said the move was made out of "delicadeza" or to avoid undue suspicions of bribery during the holiday season.

"Kasi may mga past experiences tayo na talagang kung may problema tayo dito sa POEA (Philippine Overseas Employment Agency), baka magkaroon tayo ng problema dito sa mga inspection natin dahil may reports na Christmas time na," he said.

"Sinuspend muna natin para hindi rin magamit. Wala namang intensyon 'yung mga inspectors natin, pero for delicadeza, hindi na natin gatungan pa."

Maglungsod referred to the ongoing internal cleansing of employees from the POEA who are suspected of using their positions to issue overseas employment certificates to illegal recruiters in exchange for huge sums.

Inspectors will still finish their assignments and submit the results of their inspections before the start of the moratorium.

They will still pursue cases lodged by workers at regional offices and safety and hazard inspections during this period.

"Ito ay ginagawa namin just to prevent any doubt kasi hindi natin maiiwasan minsan yung suspicion na instead na checklist ang dinadala ng ating inspectors, baka sobre ang dadalhin at namamasko pala," Undersecretary Dominador Say said.

"Without attributing any ill intentions or malice sa ating inspectors, the officials ng Department of Labor simply decided na para maalis lahat 'tong pagdududa, we will voluntarily impose a suspension beginning December 8, for one month," he added.

The undersecretary said they will work on a consolidated database of agencies who have properly implemented the labor compliance law, increased the number of regularized employees, and reached other targets since January.

As of November 3, the number of regularized workers has increased to 75,430 — 48,286 were cases of voluntary regularization and 27,144 were regularized through regular assessment.

The suspension comes a month after Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III ordered the formation of the Regional Inspection Audit Team for the random and unannounced inspection of the enforcement of the labor laws compliance system in regional offices. —KBK, GMA News