Training on new labor rules taking time

Citing time constraints, a ranking Department of Labor official said yesterday that the training of the department’s employees on the new alien labor rules and regulations is grinding along slowly.

Dean Tenorio, director of the Division of Labor, said the department has been trying to educate all of its employees on the many changes to the alien labor policy but the training sessions could not be conducted frequently enough, as the department personnel still have to attend to their regular work.

“This is a major shift in our policy, and training is very important. But it can’t be done immediately, because the employees are very busy and they work eight hours a day,” Tenorio said.

Nevertheless, he added that he tries to stay until 6pm, so he could discuss the new procedures with the staff after work hours. “We also try to do some training during weekends,” he said.

Tenorio, assistant attorney general James Livingstone, and Employment Services director Alfred Pangelinan were the guest speakers at yesterday’s special meeting of the Society of Human Resource Management.

In an interview, Tenorio said the provision in the new regulations allowing guest workers to engage in multiple employment appears to draw the greatest interest from employers.

One of the most frequently asked questions, he noted, related to the liability that each employer has over medical expenses resulting from the injury of an alien worker with two jobs.

The Labor Department encourages the primary and secondary employers to make an arrangement on how they would split medical expenses based on the number of hours that an employee works for each employer.

“Right now, an employer has 100 percent liability. With multiple employment, they would have someone to share the liability with,” Tenorio said.

He also stressed that employers are given a lot of discretion on whether or not to allow their worker to engage in a second job. Employers providing their workers at least 40 hours of work per week may cite scheduling conflict, protection of trade secrets and productivity issues as valid reasons to disallow an employee from seeking secondary employment.

Further, Tenorio said the Division of Labor has not received any applications for second jobs since the new rules were implemented two weeks ago.

“The job vacancy announcement requirement is probably one reason. Also, this is such a new concept. I guess nobody wants to be the first to rush in the door. People thought there would be a flood of applications, but it’s not going to happen if the employers don’t allow it,” he said.