Policy, purpose, and employment goals
- The State shall afford full protection to labor including local and overseas, whether organized or unorganized, and shall promote full, productive and freely chosen employment and livelihood.
- The State shall ensure equitable employment opportunities for all irrespective of sex, race, color, religion, political opinion, ethnicity, or social origin.
- The State shall pursue poverty reduction through decent jobs, sustainable enterprises, and economic transformation.
- The State shall create an environment that encourages more employment and entrepreneurship opportunities, provide comprehensive support to existing and emerging businesses—particularly MSMEs—and improve the employability, productivity, and competitiveness of Filipino workers.
- The Trabaho Para sa Bayan Plan serves as the State’s master plan on employment generation and recovery to realize short-term and long-term goals and visions.
- The plan’s objectives include:
- Stimulating national and local economic growth by aligning investment and incentives with the creation of decent employment and addressing unemployment, underemployment, youth unemployment, rising precarity and informality, and challenges in the labor market including OFW reintegration.
- Promoting workers’ employability, competitiveness, wellness, and productivity through industry-relevant skills training, reintegration pathways, active labor market activities, and related services.
- Supporting and incentivizing businesses, especially MSMEs, by increasing access to financing and capital to spur employment generation and ensure employment security and protection.
- Incentivizing employers and industry stakeholders that provide training, skills transfer, upskilling/reskilling, and enterprise-based training such as apprenticeship, work immersion, or on-the-job training.
Coverage and applicable local governments
- Republic Act No. 11962 applies to national, regional, and local government units (LGUs).
- The Act preserves the right of the Bangsamoro Government and its component LGUs to adopt and implement labor and employment projects and programs consistent with national policies, laws, rules and regulations.
Trabaho Para sa Bayan Plan and components
- The Trabaho Para sa Bayan Plan (TBP Plan) is the State’s employment generation and recovery master plan.
- The TBP Plan includes a development timeline for: three (3) years, six (6) years, and ten (10) years.
- The Trabaho Para sa Bayan Inter-Agency Council under Section 5 shall formulate the TBP Plan’s success measures, key performance indicators, and action components, including the following action areas:
- Supporting MSMEs (including start-ups and cooperatives) through increased access to financing, capital, incentives, mechanisms for transitioning informal MSMEs to formality, and other supports.
- Skilling, upskilling, and reskilling the workforce, including industry-relevant and core skills, to improve employability and competitiveness and foster lifelong learning for workers from marginalized or vulnerable sectors.
- Providing incentives to employers and private organizations that offer training, technology/knowledge/skills transfer, upskilling/reskilling, and enterprise-based training (including recognition of prior learning and experience).
- Empowering workers on rights and obligations under the Philippine Constitution, Presidential Decree No. 442 (Labor Code of the Philippines), and other labor rules, including rights to self-organization, freedom of association, and collective bargaining, through orientations, seminars, and similar modes.
- Identifying priority sectors, key and emerging industries, and other activities with high employment potential, including for investment encouragement, targeted interventions and subsidies, and support for value-adding supply chains.
- Expanding active labor market policies, information, and programs, including employment facilitation and OFW reintegration support, using innovative means to improve accessibility and efficiency.
- Enhancing tripartism and social dialogue among workers, employers, and government, and increasing participation and representation of marginalized and vulnerable sectors in labor issues.
- Addressing youth unemployment by identifying challenges in the school-to-work transition and challenges confronting NEET (youth not engaged in education, employment or training).
- Providing standards for the training and employment of apprentices and formulating guidelines for apprenticeship programs and other enterprise-based education and training modalities.
- Establishing effective and inclusive grievance redress mechanisms that are accessible, credible, and provide accountability.
- Supporting the welfare of workers in new forms of work arrangements such as freelance work, in-person or via online platforms or the gig economy.
- Formulating integrated plans and incentives for transitioning workers and enterprises from informal to formal economy through enabling interventions, including business registration, financial literacy programs, and enrollment in social protection programs such as SSS, PhilHealth, and Pag-IBIG.
- Promoting ethical and fair recruitment standards and practices to protect migrant workers’ rights, promote decent work, and enhance global competitiveness.
- Promoting access to and utilization of digital infrastructure by MSMEs and informal economic units to overcome the digital divide.
- Contributing to full-cycle and comprehensive national reintegration for both documented and undocumented OFWs.
TBP Inter-Agency Council: composition and support
- The Trabaho Para sa Bayan Inter-Agency Council (TBP-IAC) is established.
- The TBP-IAC is composed of:
- Director-General of NEDA as Chairperson.
- Secretary of DTI as Co-Chairperson.
- Secretary of DOLE as Co-Chairperson.
- Director-General of TESDA as member.
- Secretary of DBM as member.
- Secretary of DOF as member.
- Secretary of DILG as member.
- One (1) representative from employers’ organizations.
- One (1) representative from labor organizations.
- One (1) representative from the marginalized or vulnerable sector.
- One (1) representative from the informal sector.
- The TBP-IAC shall meet at least every quarter or as often as necessary.
- TBP-IAC chairpersons and members may designate representatives with at least the rank of Assistant Secretary or its equivalent, who must be fully authorized to decide for and on behalf of the agency represented.
- The TBP-IAC Secretariat shall be composed of dedicated personnel from NEDA, DTI, and DOLE to provide administrative, operational, and technical support.
- The TBP-IAC shall engage other government agencies and instrumentalities, and representatives from labor and employers’ organizations, marginalized or vulnerable sectors, and informal sectors as necessary.
Powers, functions, and working groups
- The TBP-IAC shall:
- Formulate the TBP Plan including action components, success measures, and key performance indicators.
- Monitor, review, evaluate, and update the TBP Plan and its implementation/accomplishments, identify gaps in execution, and recommend improvements.
- Conduct comprehensive analysis of the employment situation and labor market, including global employment and economic trends, existing policies and programs affecting the workforce in particular sectors, and initiatives supported by the private sector, NGOs, or international development organizations.
- Review and streamline existing policies, plans, programs, projects, and existing inter-agency councils, and provide directions to align efforts with the TBP Plan to avoid duplication and harmonize government efforts.
- Assist LGUs in planning, devising, and implementing local employment generation and recovery plans and programs aligned with the TBP Plan.
- Craft and provide guidelines for institutionalizing the TBP Plan in each government agency.
- Perform other functions related to implementing the TBP Plan.
- Working groups may be established by the TBP-IAC to pursue implementation of the TBP Plan.
- Working groups shall be aligned with the objectives and targets in the TBP Plan and shall develop/enhance employment generation and recovery in specific industries and emerging sectors such as: health services, construction, tourism, agriculture, information technology and business process management, and manufacturing, and working groups on thematic areas.
- Each working group shall be chaired by a government agency designated by the TBP-IAC, and industry sector representatives may be represented and shall participate.
Government coordination, hiring analysis, and reporting
- The Civil Service Commission (CSC), Commission on Audit (COA), and DBM, in consultation with relevant government agencies and LGUs, shall conduct an analysis and review of existing government hiring policies and standards, including skills/competencies required, recruitment and selection processes, and appropriate manpower needs of government.
- All government agencies, including LGUs, shall:
- Coordinate and integrate TBP Plan alignment with their policies and programs through the TBP-IAC.
- Provide necessary information to the TBP-IAC when requested to realize the Act’s objectives.
- The TBP-IAC shall submit reports every January and July to the Office of the President, the Senate of the Philippines, and the House of Representatives on:
- Timelines and status of implementation and accomplishments of each TBP Plan action component.
- Evaluation of policies, plans, programs, and projects of relevant government agencies.
- Recommendations for policy interventions to address identified labor market challenges in the TBP Plan.
- Other relevant information.
- The reports shall be publicly available through the websites of the relevant government agencies.
Implementing rules, appropriations, and effectual framework
- The TBP-IAC, together with other concerned agencies and private stakeholders, shall jointly formulate the implementing rules and regulations within one hundred eighty (180) days from the Act’s effectivity.
- Initial implementation shall be charged against the current year’s appropriations of the concerned departments or agencies.
- Continued implementation shall be funded through sums included in the annual General Appropriations Act.
Separability and repealing rules
- Separability Clause (Section 13): Unconstitutional or invalid portions shall not nullify the rest of the Act if remaining portions can subsist and be given effect in their entirety.
- Repealing Clause (Section 14): Laws, ordinances, rules, regulations, other issuances, or parts inconsistent with the Act are repealed or modified accordingly.