City officials requested the 128 barangays in the city through their respective committees on labor and employment or its equivalent to help in the information dissemination and facilitation of available labor force in their barangays to the Public Employment Service Office (PESO).
Under Resolution No. 001, series of 2021 that was signed by Mayor Benjamin B. Magalong, local legislators stated that to facilitate the smooth deployment of job seekers to their appropriate job destinations, there is a need to bolster the partnership of the city’s PESO with all the 128 barangays through their respective committee on barangay labor and employment or its equivalent as barangay officials as they are more familiar with the their residents who are seeking employment to survive the present effects of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) –pandemic.
The council claimed that the aforesaid task will ascertain prompt dissemination of relevant information and the effective and efficient delivery of employment services to job seekers in the different barangays.
The body added that considering the increase of unemployed and displaced workers due to the ongoing pandemic, local employment facilitation services encounter difficulties in adjusting to the new normal and how to carry out its intrinsic objective of bringing job seekers to work opportunities that have been available by concerned city stakeholders.
Under the resolution, the chairman of the barangay committees on labor and employment or its equivalent shall serve as the focal person to ensure that the issues and concerned stakeholders in the communities.
The designated focal persons in the city’s barangays through which the programs and services as well as relevant labor market information from the PESO are disseminated in the barangay level shall assist qualified residents to the PESO for referral and placement as well as screenings, when applicable; disseminate skills registry system forms and guide qualified job seekers or residents in filing up the prescribed forms; submit to the PESO the list of individuals who have duly filled out the required forms; partner with the PESO in the conduct and dissemination of information of special programs such as job fairs, the Special Program for the Employment of Students (SPES), the conduct of local and overseas recruitment activities among others; to include in its report to the PESO cases of labor code or contract violation involving the concerned residents employed locally or overseas and perform other functions attendant to the task of ascertaining that qualified barangay residents are placed in suitable jobs or are given appropriate opportunities for training ad retooling whoever possible.
One of the important committees in the barangay councils as mandated by existing rules and regulations is the committee on labor and employment tasked to oversee the implementation of labor-related programs, projects and activities of concerned government agencies in their areas of jurisdiction.
The barangays are said to be the smallest political subdivision in the bureaucracy that hold enormous duties and responsibilities ranging for the execution of regulations, legislation of policies and settlement of disputes and conflicts among their constituents.
By Dexter A. See
