QuestionsQuestions (Republic Act No. 10869)
RA No. 10869 is known as the “JobStart Philippines Act.”
The State shall promote full employment, equality of employment opportunities, and full protection to labor; it subscribes to ILO’s Decent Work Agenda; and it promotes PESO as the primary local institution for active labor market programs.
To shorten the youth’s school-to-work transition by improving employability through job search assistance, training, life skills, and placement/referral; and to improve PESO employment facilitation services.
A JobStart trainee is an eligible JobStart registrant selected to participate in the program.
Must be a Filipino citizen; age 18 to 24 (with special allowance for 17-year-olds who will be 18 by the technical training time); at least reached high school level; not employed/studying/undergoing training at registration; and have no work experience or less than one (1) year of accumulated work experience.
The registrant is considered a trainee and not an employee of the participating employer for the duration of the training program.
It includes full employment facilitation services: registration, client assessment, life skills training with one-on-one career coaching, technical training, job matching, and referrals to employers for further training, internship, or decent employment.
DOLE shall establish JobStart units at the Bureau of Local Employment (BLE) and in every DOLE regional office. The unit provides training/administrative costs as specified in MOAs, and approves training plans with PESO coordination and TESDA technical advice.
Trainees receive a daily training allowance from life skills to technical training (amount determined by DOLE). During internship, employers provide a daily internship stipend of not less than 75% of the prevailing minimum wage in the city/municipality, based on actual attendance, with deductions for absences/tardiness/undertime; payments must be at least once every two weeks (twice a month, intervals not exceeding 16 days).
Not more than three (3) months or 600 hours.
Total daily training hours shall be eight (8) hours exclusive of not less than sixty (60) minutes time off for regular meals.
Internship may be beyond 8 hours a day if overtime does not exceed 2 hours/day; overtime is paid an additional stipend equivalent to the daily internship stipend plus at least 25% thereof, and overtime time is credited to training hours.
Night shift differential: not less than 10% of the internship stipend for each hour between 10:00 PM and 6:00 AM. Regular holidays: trainees may be trained if willing; they must be compensated twice the daily internship stipend on regular holidays.
No. If hired in the same establishment upon completion, the trainee is no longer required to undergo a probationary period at the end of the internship phase, provided the trainee completed technical training within the training plan prepared by the same employer.
They must be covered with basic accident insurance for the duration of the program, paid by DOLE; employers are reimbursed through the PESO for pre-training and employment medical examinations; LGUs exempt trainees from securing a work permit.
An employer may take in JobStart trainees only up to a maximum of 20% of its total workforce.
By the employer: habitual absenteeism; willful disobedience/insubordination; theft or malicious destruction; violence/misconduct; inefficiency or poor training performance for a prolonged period despite warnings. By the JobStart trainee: substandard or harmful working conditions; cruel and inhumane treatment; prolonged or continuing illness.