THE International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP) launched on Tuesday a series of webinars in a determined bid to boost the compliance with labor standards in rural areas.
The initiative is part of ILO’s Project on Improving Workers’ Rights in the Rural Sectors of the Indo-Pacific, which is funded by the United States Department of Labor (USDOL).
The first of the webinars for agriculture workers was held last Tuesday (farming), while the online seminar in the fishing sector will be held on February 22, 2022.
The last of the scheduled webinars will be for miners and will be held on March 1, 2022.
“This initiative is undertaken in line with the goal to improve promotion of labor laws compliance, occupational safety and health (OSH) and gender equality in the agriculture, fishing and mining sectors,” ILO said in a statement.
Better access
The webinars are expected to raise awareness on the benefits and importance of compliance with labor standards and sectoral good practices and provide a platform for dialogue between government and businesses.
ILO hopes this will allow the Philippine government to access new markets, “requiring compliance and due diligence.”
Currently, ILO said the country’s agriculture, fishing and mining sectors, are “highly characterized by poverty and poor working conditions, especially at the lower tiers of the supply chains.”
There are currently 9 million Filipinos working in the agriculture, fishing and mining sectors, 22 percent of whom are women.
Pilot phase
In a SMS, ILO media and public information office Minette Rimando told BusinessMirror the initiative will initially cover 60 participants from agricultural enterprises that are members of ECOP, which includes members of the Banana Industry Tripartite Councils.
She said the participants from areas with “challenges with internet connection” were provided “data allowance” by ECOP.
The outcome of the webinar series will be used by ILO to create a model on how to improve the working conditions in its identified sectors.
`“Within four years, the project will focus its efforts in building intervention models in these pilot enterprises and communities, which the project hopes to replicate in other areas later on,” Rimando said.