DOLE Adjustment Measures Program Guidelines

It establishes the DOLE Adjustment Measures Program (DOLE-AMP) as a safety-net program providing a package of assistance and interventions to help workers and companies cope with economic and social disruptions, with priority to measures that enhance employability and prevent/minimize job losses.

Component I: Direct services via the DOLE Quick Response Team (QRT) including early warning and immediate advocacy/assistance. Component II: DOLE services that proponents may tap, covering worker-level and company/enterprise-level interventions. Component III: DOLE institutional capability building for program implementers and partners.

The QRT serves as the Workers Action Group within DOLE, providing immediate assistance as warranted when job loss/displacement threats arise.

It creates a functional network with partners, companies/enterprises, and community leaders to obtain accurate company data, spot troubled enterprises using available information, and monitor developments to mobilize appropriate actions.

It includes remedies involving preventive mediation, conciliation-mediation, med-arbitration, voluntary and compulsory arbitration, responses outlined for different SAGIP alert levels, and assistance in claiming unpaid salaries/benefits and other money claims.

On-site assistance covers registration and needs assessment, worker profiling, employment guidance and counseling. Local employment facilitation provides access to suitable job opportunities through job matching, referral, and placement.

The program is nationwide and covers: (1) threatened/displaced workers due to rightsizing, redundancy, import competition, technological change/labor-saving devices, or analogous causes linked to trade liberalization; (2) at-risk companies, especially those aiming for responsible workforce restructuring; and (3) communities with large-scale local workforce displacement.

It provides financial assistance equivalent to the placement fee of up to one (1) month salary plus miscellaneous expenses of P5,000.00, strictly for prospective OFWs with valid employment contracts and limited to the unskilled category.

Training-cum-Production combines production with entrepreneurship training so trainees produce a tangible product that becomes the anchor for future self-employment. Enterprise/Small Business Development provides support toward establishing viable enterprises/small businesses including capital assistance, common facility services, marketing, support and training grants.

It includes customized training programs for higher qualification in the previously practiced occupation based on individual needs and labor-market requirements; and intensive skills development/reorientation to a new field (with TESDA-tapped courses where applicable).

Labor-management education provides seminars on labor/human relations/productivity to inculcate observance of labor laws and tools for competitiveness. Responsible workforce restructuring provides training/learning sessions to develop internal adjustment plans to avoid or reduce dismissals/lay-offs and to develop displacement plans when unavoidable, including strategies like conversion training, enterprise creation, early retirement, and financial incentives.

The text lists training linked to redundancy periods, leave schemes, working time/work organization changes, short-time work, and temporary lay-offs.

Depending on capability, options include conversion training measures, enterprise creation, early retirement, and financial incentives.

The PMT is chaired by the Undersecretary for Labor Relations. Members include BLR, BRW, Bureau of Local Employment (BLE), NCMB, TESDA, FMS, and Planning Service (PS).

Below P200,000: RCC/RPMT; P200,000 and above but below P1M: DOLE Undersecretary for Labor Relations upon endorsement of the DOLE-AMP PMT; P1M and above: Secretary of Labor and Employment upon recommendation of the DOLE-AMP PMT and duly noted by the Undersecretary.

It funds mobilization, coordination, and firming up of activities at the onset of displacement, subject to RCC/RPMT-approved project proposals. The maximum per region is up to P200,000.00.

A project proposal/feasibility study; (for overseas employment projects) POEA-approved job contracts, though for entrepreneurship development the text still lists a project proposal/feasibility study as the key item; plus endorsement of the DOLE Regional Director and certification of displacement (and valid employment contracts only for those opting for overseas employment).

All MOAs/contracts must include a Certificate of Funds Availability by the Chief Accountant concerned, duly approved by the RD/Undersecretary for Labor Relations/Secretary, as the case may be.

They must submit a project profile for each project/intervention and submit a Quarterly Progress Report for Component II.b only. The quarterly progress report must be submitted to the DOLE-AMP Secretariat within ten (10) days after the reference period.

Fund liquidation shall be in accordance with COA Circular 96-03, subject to usual accounting and auditing rules and regulations.