Qualified displaced workers may soon finally avail themselves of the unemployment insurance from the Social Security System (SSS) after the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) issued the necessary guidelines for the proposal.
Last week, Labor Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III issued Department Circular 01, Series of 2019 covering the certification requirement for applicants, who are availing of the unemployment insurance benefit stipulated by Republic Act (RA) 11199, or the Social Security Act of 2018.
Under the two-page issuance, all SSS members, including household service workers (HSW) and overseas Filipino workers (OFW), who were “involuntarily” retrenched are eligible for the new benefit.
For local workers, they could file their application for the certification at the nearest DOLE Field or Provincial Office, where their employer is located, while OFWs, who are abroad, may do so at the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO).
They will be required to submit one valid ID and a copy of the Notice of Termination by their employer.
“In the absence of the Notice of Termination, an applicant may submit duly notarized Affidavit of Termination of Employment to DOLE Field or Provincial Offices, or Philippine Overseas Labor Office, as the case may be,” Bello said.
DOLE Field Offices, or Provincial Offices as well as POLOs, are mandated to issue the certification within the day it was filed provided it has complete documentary requirements.
The Bureau of Local Employment was tasked to monitor the application and issuance of the DOLE certification for unemployment insurance.
The DOLE certification ensuring a worker as retrenched because of “authorized causes” is a requirement before SSS could process unemployment insurance.
In a related development, Bello said the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) for the mandatory SSS membership of OFWs of RA 11199 is still pending and could still not be fully implemented.
“The [new] IRR has yet to be released,” Bello said in a text message.
The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) earlier said the IRR may be completed during the next DOLE-Department of Foreign Affairs-SSS meeting on the matter.
The IRR is currently being revised after it was opposed by migrant advocates and the labor recruitment industry.