DOLE Adjustment Measures Program Guidelines

Dole Department Order No. 85, S. Of 2007
The DOLE Adjustment Measures Program expands support for Filipino workers and distressed companies by providing a comprehensive safety net aimed at preventing job losses, enhancing employability, and facilitating responsible workforce restructuring in response to economic disruptions.
employment law labor rights job security

Legal basis, policy, and intent

  • The Order is issued in the interest of the service pursuant to the 2004 Social Accord for Industrial Peace and Stability.
  • The Order expands the DOLE-AMP coverage and package of interventions to address increased employability of Filipino workers, particularly in key employment generators (KEGs).
  • The Order expands coverage to assist companies, particularly distressed companies, toward responsible workforce management and/or restructuring.
  • The Order states that DOLE-AMP is a safety net that provides a package of assistance and other interventions to help individuals/workers and companies cope with economic and social disruptions.
  • The Order directs that DOLE-AMP shall prioritize interventions that enhance competitiveness and employability of workers and assist distressed companies in adopting socially responsible workforce restructuring policies and positive workforce adjustment measures to prevent and/or minimize job losses.

Scope, coverage, and coverage mechanics

  • The program is implemented nationwide.
  • The program covers any or a combination of:
    • Threatened or displaced workers due to rightsizing, redundancy, import competition, introduction of technological change and labor-saving devices, and other analogous causes directly or indirectly caused by trade liberalization.
    • At risk companies, particularly those who desire to implement responsible workforce restructuring.
    • Communities with large-scale displacement of the local workforce.
  • The Order structures implementation through three (3) program components and corresponding intervention channels.
  • The Order connects worker assistance and company assistance through Quick Response Team (QRT) mechanisms at national and regional levels.

Program components and interventions

  • The Order creates three (3) major components and intervening services:
    • Component I: Direct services to be provided by the DOLE-QRT.
    • Component II: DOLE services that proponents can tap.
    • Component III: DOLE institutional capability building.
  • Component I provides services to assist workers about to lose or have lost jobs and assist companies toward socially responsible workforce restructuring through reconstitution and/or strengthening of the Quick Response Team (QRT).
  • The Quick Response Team serves as the Workers Action Group within DOLE and provides immediate assistance as warranted.
  • The Order provides that Component II extends necessary technical and/or financial assistance to qualified proponents through specified worker-level and company-level interventions.
  • The Order provides that Component III provides continuing education and capability building to program implementers and partners, including DOLE, PESO, RCC, and the Tripartite Bodies.

Component I: DOLE-QRT direct services

  • Component I includes the Early Warning Network Monitoring System to provide early warning indicators at the onset of socio-economic disruption through a functional network with partners, companies/enterprises, and community leaders.
  • The Early Warning Network Monitoring System enables the program to:
    • obtain accurate and up-to-date information on companies/enterprises;
    • use available data/information and contacts to spot troubled companies/enterprises; and
    • monitor developments in spotted companies/enterprises to establish appropriate action to mobilize.
  • Component I includes an Advocacy and Assistance Mechanism that immediately activates based on reports and action required generated from the early warning system.
  • The Advocacy and Assistance Mechanism provides on-site assistance to save jobs and/or facilitate employment/re-employment whenever possible through:
    • Legal Assistance covering:
      • remedies relating to preventive mediation, conciliation-mediation, med-arbitration, voluntary and compulsory arbitration under the law;
      • responses under Special Action Group for Industrial Peace (SAGIP) at various levels of alertness;
      • assistance in claiming unpaid salaries and benefits and other money claims.
    • Job Search Assistance Services through:
      • On-site assistance consisting of registration and needs assessment; profiling of workers to determine the nature and extent of assistance; and employment guidance and counseling; and
      • Local employment facilitation by providing access to available job opportunities suitable to displaced workers through job matching, referral and placement services.

Component II: Proponent-tapped assistance

  • Component II extends necessary technical and/or financial assistance through worker-level and company/enterprise-level interventions.
  • Worker-level: overseas employment facilitation provides financial assistance to displaced workers to defray placement fee equivalent to one (1) month salary and miscellaneous expenses in the amount of five thousand pesos (P5,000.00).
  • Overseas employment facilitation is available for prospective OFWs with valid employment contracts only and is strictly limited to the unskilled category.
  • Worker-level: entrepreneurship and enterprise development assists groups of displaced workers for livelihood/self-employment projects through:
    • Training-cum-Production, combining production with entrepreneurship development training so trainees realize a tangible product as an anchor for a future self-employment type of business; and
    • Enterprise/Small Business Development providing support services for establishing viable enterprises/small businesses through capital assistance, common facility services, marketing, support and training grants.
  • Worker-level: employability enhancement for global competitiveness provides education and training and/or retraining to equip workers with necessary skills or upgrade existing skills to enhance employability, including:
    • Customized Training Programs for higher qualification (specialized) in a previously practiced occupation, individual-specific and designed to suit specific needs and labor market demand for a specific skill; and
    • Intensive Skills Development and Enhancement providing training for complete reorientation in a new field, including tapping TESDA training programs and allowing attendance at established training institutions for courses not offered by TESDA.
  • Company/enterprise-level: labor-management education provides labor, human relations, and productivity seminars to inculcate observance of labor laws, harmonize work relations, and provide tools for increased productivity and competitiveness.
  • Company/enterprise-level: responsible workforce restructuring provides assistance to at-risk/distressed companies/firms via training and learning sessions for:
    • developing an internal adjustment plan with alternatives/options to dismissals/lay-offs, including training linked to workforce redundancies, leave schemes, working time/work organization changes, short-time work, and temporary lay-offs; and
    • developing a displacement plan for inevitable displacement with strategies and options for workers’ coping measures, including conversion training measures, enterprise creation, early retirement, and financial incentives, depending on capability of the recipients.

Component III: Institutional capability building

  • Component III provides continuing education and capability building and upgrading to program implementers and partners directly involved in policy making and managing and implementing DOLE-AMP interventions.
  • Priority training areas include:
    • Management of Large Scale Displacement;
    • Development and Management of Appropriate Program Responses/Measures to Address Displacement;
    • Employment Counseling;
    • Career Guidance;
    • Project Development and Management;
    • Business Counseling; and
    • Networking and Resource Mobilization.

Program management and responsible offices

  • The program management includes a Central Office structure and Regional Office structure.
  • Central Office:
    • A Program Management Team (PMT) is chaired by the Undersecretary for Labor Relations and includes BLR, BRW, BLE, NCMB, TESDA, FMS, and PS.
    • The PMT oversees DOLE-AMP and specifically formulates policies and guidelines; evaluates and approves project proposals costing more than P200,000.00 but not less than 1M; and evaluates and recommends to the Secretary the approval of project proposals costing P1 million and above.
    • The Bureau of Labor Relations (BLR) acts as the Program Secretariat, under the direct supervision of the Undersecretary for Labor Relations, and administers the fund in coordination with FMS.
    • BLR responsibilities include technical and administrative support to the PMT, initial screening and evaluation of project proposals (including completeness checking), preparing project briefs, farming out proposals to concerned agencies, monitoring industry closures and retrenchments, monitoring/evaluating and analyzing the status of funded projects, overseeing Component III implementation, submitting quarterly reports (including status of funds) to the Undersecretary for Labor Relations, establishing internal monitoring and control, maintaining a database of project records, and conducting spot audits.
  • Regional Office:
    • The Regional Coordinating Council (RCC) or Regional Program Management Team (RPMT), with the RD as Chairperson, clears project proposals, evaluates and deliberates proposals, approves proposals to be funded out of the emergency bridging fund and recommends PMT approval for P200,000.00 and above, ensures completeness and validity of claims and authenticity of documents, monitors and evaluates implementation at the regional level, and recommends policies to the PMT.
    • The Regional Technical Working Group (RTWG) is acted upon by TSSD/LHD/WAWD assisted by the Planning Officer and undertakes receipt and evaluation of proposals from field offices, validation of accreditation requirements, recommendation to RPMT, coordination of RCC/RPMT meetings, coordination for proponent revisions/additional requirements through field offices, provision of technical assistance for entrepreneurship development and organizational/project management training, and monitoring/inspection/validation and progress reporting.

Program mechanics, funds, approvals, and reports

  • Component I emergency bridging fund:
    • All regional offices are provided an Emergency Bridging Fund of up to a maximum of P200,000.00 for mobilization, coordination, and firming up activities at the onset of displacement.
    • The bridging fund allocation per region is pro-rated using actual displacement figures.
    • Emergency-bridging fund expenditures must be covered by a project proposal duly approved by the RCC/RPMT.
  • Component II documentary requirements (worker-level):
    • Applicants/proponents submit a Project Proposal/Feasibility Study for entrepreneurship development and training assistance.
    • For partner recruitment agency: submit POEA approved job contracts.
    • Submit endorsement of the DOLE Regional Director.
    • For certification of displacement for workers from the formal sector (established if still existing; if already shut down, certification is made by the DOLE Regional Director in cases of reported closure, retrenchment, redundancy, rightsizing, or analogous causes).
    • For overseas employment: submit valid employment contracts for those opting for overseas employment.
  • Component II project approval process (worker-level):
    • Submit documentary requirements to the concerned DOLE Regional Office (RO)/Field Office (FO) for evaluation/recommendation and endorsement to the CO.
    • Upon approval, execute the appropriate Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) or contract between DOLE and the proponent.
    • 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.
    • The approving authority is based on project cost:
      • Below P200,000.00: approval by RCC/RPMT.
      • P200,000.00 and above but below P1M: approval by DOLE Undersecretary for Labor Relations upon endorsement of the DOLE-AMP Program Management Team.
      • P1M and above: approval by the Secretary of Labor and Employment upon recommendation of the DOLE-AMP Program Management Team and duly noted by the Undersecretary.
  • Component II documentary requirements (company/firm level):
    • Companies/firms submit a letter of intent to participate and a plan of action, including a company/firm-level implementation plan, to the respective regional office.
  • Component III BLR functions:
    • BLR develops and implements a training and development plan to build/enhance DOLE and program partners’ capability in handling displacement.
    • BLR conducts continuing review and upgrading of the Labor Relations, Human Relations and Productivity Module.
  • Program funds:
    • Approved projects are funded under the budget allocation for Prevention of Job Losses and Assistance to Displaced Workers, managed by the DOLE-Central Office (CO).
    • The CO provides funding for administrative requirements of the ROs for implementation and monitoring of the AMP.
  • Monitoring and reporting (project profile and quarterly reports):
    • Each implementing regional office prepares and submits to the DOLE-AMP secretariat (BLR) a project profile for each project/intervention using the prescribed DOLE-AMP PROJECT PROFILE format covering regional office number, component and intervention, proponent details, contact person, location, staff, brief description, duration (project start and completion date), cost, objectives, and (for Component II.b only) quarterly progress report information.
    • For Component II.b: at the end of each quarter, regional project managers submit quarterly progress reports to the DOLE-AMP Secretariat within ten (10) days after the reference period using the DOLE-AMP QUARTERLY PROGRESS REPORT format.
    • Quarterly progress reports include progress/results versus original/revised activities/objectives and milestone achievements, and details of deviations (with reasons) when changes occur.
    • BLR consolidates the regional reports and submits a summary to the DOLE-AMP Program Management Team.
  • Annual/terminal reporting:
    • At the end of the year or at the end of project implementation, regional project staff report achievements using the quarterly progress report form, with addition of an annual/terminal report format covering extent of impact/relevance and fund utilization against original activities and approved budget.
  • Fund liquidation:
    • DOLE-AMP fund liquidation follows COA Circular 96-03, subject to usual accounting and auditing rules and regulations.

Enforcement, amendment, and separability

  • The Order provides separability: if any provision or its application is held invalid by the courts, the remaining valid provisions are not affected.
  • The Order partially amends DOs 3-99, 36-02 and 7-01.

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