National Employment Service Law

June 20, 1952

REPUBLIC ACT NO. 761

AN ACT TO PROVIDE FOR THE ORGANIZATION OF A NATIONAL EMPLOYMENT SERVICE ^*

SECTION 1. National Employment Service; Creation of . — In order to ensure the best possible organization of the employment market as an integral part of the national program for the achievement and maintenance of maximum employment and the development and use of productive resources, there is hereby established a national system of free public employment offices to be known as the National Employment Service, hereinafter referred to as the Service. The Service shall be under the executive supervision and control of the Department of Labor, and shall have a chief who shall be known as the Commissioner of the National Employment Service hereinafter referred to as Commissioner. Said Commissioner shall be appointed by the President of the Philippines with the consent of the Commission on Appointments and shall receive compensation at the rate of nine thousand pesos per annum. A Deputy Commissioner shall also be appointed by the President of the Philippines with the consent of the Commission on Appointments and shall receive compensation at the rate of seven thousand two hundred pesos per annum.

Upon the organization of the Service, the existing Placement Bureau and the existing Employment Office in the Commission of Social Welfare shall be abolished, and all the files, records, supplies, equipment, qualified personnel and unexpended balances of appropriations of said Bureau and Commission pertaining to said bureau or office shall thereupon be transferred to the Service.

The Service shall administer Act Numbered Twenty-four hundred and eighty-six entitled, "An Act fixing a tax upon every person or entity engaged in recruiting or contracting laborers in the Philippines, and amending sub-section (a) of section fifty-three of Act Numbered Twenty-three hundred thirty-nine." The Service shall also administer Act Numbered Thirty-nine hundred and fifty-seven, entitled, "An Act to regulate the activities of private employment agencies, punish violators hereof and for other purposes." Whenever the phrase "Director of Labor" appears in said Acts, it shall hereafter be taken to read Commissioner of the National Employment Service."

SECTION 2. Employment Service Advisory Council; Advisory Committees. — There is hereby established a National Employment Service Advisory Council to advise and assist the Secretary of Labor and the Commissioner in the organization and operation of the Service and in the development of employ-service policy. The Council shall be composed of five technical men whose training and experience in labor problems and associations qualify them as such; two representatives of employers and two representatives of labor and one member who is not openly identified either with labor or employers' groups to be appointed by the Secretary of Labor after consultation with employers' and workers' organizations. Members of the Council shall receive a per diem of ten pesos for every meeting attended but which will not exceed fifty pesos per month and in addition shall be entitled to reimbursement for traveling and other expenses actually incurred in attendance to the duties of the Council. The Commissioner shall make available to the members of the Council the records of the Service. cd

Upon the recommendation of the Council, the Secretary of Labor may appoint such national, regional, or local employment advisory committees as may be desirable. Each of such committees shall have an equal number of representatives of employers and employees as shall be appointed after consultation with employers' and workers' organizations. Each such committee shall also have one member who shall represent the public interest and act as chairman.

SECTION 3. Public employment offices. — The Commissioner shall establish, reestablish, or move, upon advice of the Council and with the approval of the Secretary of Labor, a headquarters office and district and local public employment offices in such number and in such places as will best promote the purposes of this Act and as may be authorized by law.

SECTION 4. General duties and powers. — Its shall be the duty of the Service —

(a) To provide free placement service for labor of all types;

(b) To collect and analyze, in cooperation with the Bureau of the Census and Statistics and other appropriate public and private agencies, the fullest available information on the employment situation of its probable trends, and to make and disseminate such information systematically available to other public agencies, employers, workers, and the public;

(c) To encourage and assist as necessary other public agencies and private organizations in social and economic planning calculated to ensure a favorable employment situation;

(d) To cooperate in the administration of such employment insurance or assistance schemes and such other measures as may be established for the relief of the unemployed;

(e) To make continuous and special studies on the various aspects of the organization of the employment market and recommend measures for preventing or remedying unemployment and underemployment;

(f) To assist the transfer of workers or settlers from one place to another;

(g) To prepare an annual report of its activities with special emphasis on the number of applicants who had obtained employment through the Service in relation to the number of applicants that had registered with the Service; and

(h) To perform such other duties as may be assigned to it by law.

The Commissioner shall have the power to require any person, organization, or institution to submit information or employment reports in such form and containing such particulars as he may, by rule or regulation, prescribe.

The Commissioner, with the approval of the Secretary of Labor, shall have the power to make, amend, and rescind such rules and regulations and orders as may be necessary to carry out the purposes of this Act.

SECTION 5. Placement and recruitment. — To ensure effective placement and recruitment, the Service shall —

(a) assist workers to obtain suitable employment and assist employers to obtain suitable workers and shall for this purpose —

(1) register applicants for employment, take note of their occupational qualifications, experience, and desires, and interview them for employment and evaluate, if necessary, their physical and vocational capacity and assist them, when appropriate, to obtain vocational guidance or vocational training or re-training.

(2) obtain from employers precise information on vacancies and the requirements to be met by the workers sought by them;

(3) refer to available employment applicants with suitable skills and physical capacity; and

(4) refer applicants and vacancies from one employment office to another, in cases in which the applicants cannot suitably be placed or the vacancies suitably filled by the original office or in which other circumstances warrant such action: Provided, That, the Service shall observe strict neutrality in case of employment available as a result of an industrial dispute and shall not discriminate under existing laws against any applicant on account of race, color, sex, or belief: Provided, further, That the Service shall not refer to workers to employment in respect to which the wages or other conditions of work below the standards prescribed by law or prevailing practice;

(b) take appropriate measures —

(1) to facilitate occupational and industrial mobility with a view to adjusting the supply of labor to the employment opportunities in various occupations and industries;

(2) to facilitate geographic mobility with a view to assisting the movement of the workers of settlers to areas with suitable employment opportunities; cdt

(3) to facilitate the temporary transfer of workers or settlers from one area to another to meet temporary maladjustments in labor demand and supply; and

(4) to facilitate any movement of workers from or to another country which may have been approved by the foreign governments concerned;

(c) develop within the various employment offices specialization by occupations and by industries, whenever the character or importance of any industry or occupation or other special factors require such specialization; and

(d) provide adequate arrangements for the placement of veterans, women, juveniles, and disabled persons.

The Service will furnish all government entities, including government-owned or government-controlled corporations that hire laborers all such information, data or statistics that the Service will have compiled.

SECTION 6. Employment counselling and testing. — The Service shall establish an employment counselling and testing service for the purpose of giving assistance to any person who may require aid in choosing an occupation or in changing his occupation, or of promoting the vocational readjustment of any person who may require such assistance. Employment counselling and testing shall be organized in close relation with —

(a) all other activities of the Service;

(b) other vocational guidance services;

(c) educational and training institutions;

(d) the administration of training and re-training program; and

(e) rehabilitation services for disabled persons.

The Service shall take all appropriate measures to extend the facilities of employment counselling and testing in the case of —

(a) persons entering employment for the first time;

(b) persons unemployed for a long period;

(c) persons unemployed or likely to be employed as a result of declining industries or changes in the technique, structure, or location of an industry;

(d) persons living in rural areas who comprise surplus manpower in the light of current or prospective employment opportunities; and

(e) persons desiring to benefit from public facilities, vocational training and readjustment.

The Service shall, where appropriate, assist such persons to obtain vocational training or re-training.

SECTION 7. Transfer of workers. — The Service shall take all proper legal steps to remove economic barriers to the transfer of workers. It may extend financial assistance by way of loan, in the case transfer of workers which it deems necessary, particularly where no other arrangements exist for the payment other than by workers of the expenses involved in such transfer.

The Service may arrange for the payment of the expenses of the transfer of workers by the employer upon whose application such workers are being recruited. If any employer who applies for workers engages other workers before the person or persons recruited by the Secretary can reach the place of employment, such person or persons shall be entitled to reimbursement from the employer for the traveling expenses incurred by them, including the expenses for the return journey.

The Service shall furnish applicants for employment and workers generally the fullest and most reliable information concerning employment opportunities and working conditions in other areas and concerning the living conditions, including availability of suitable housing accommodations, in such areas. When the Commissioner finds that there is a surplus of any type of labor in any area or that there is a shortage of suitable housing accommodations in any area, he shall cause that fact to be published and shall take appropriate measures to discourage the migration of job seekers to such area until the situation is remedied.

SECTION 8. Employment market information and analysis. — The Service shall collect and disseminate such detailed information on the situation of the employment market as may be useful to other public agencies in social and economic planning and to employers in organizing productive enterprises. Such information shall contain material pertaining to —

(a) the current and prospective labor requirements classified according to agricultural, industrial needs, including the number and type of workers needed, classified on an agricultural, industrial, occupational or regional basis; and

(b) the current and prospective labor supply, including details as to the number, sex, skills, occupations, industries, areas of residence of the workers, of the number, location, and characteristics of applicants for employment.

The Service shall, on the basis of the information in its possession, cooperate with other public agencies in the formation, coordination and application of policy in regard to —

(a) the distribution of industry;

(b) public works and public investments;

(c) technological progress in relation to production and employment;

(d) migration;

(e) housing; and

(f) general community organization and planning affecting availability of employment. acd

The Service shall, as soon as practicable, and in cooperation with other public agencies, draw up annually a manpower budget as a part of the general economic survey, which shall include detailed material concerning the anticipated volume and distribution of labor demand and supply.

SECTION 9. Penalty. — Any person who shall violate the provisions of this Act or any rule or regulation promulgated hereunder shall be punished by a fine of not less than one hundred pesos nor more than one thousand pesos or by imprisonment for not less than thirty days nor more than six months, or by both, such fine and imprisonment in the discretion of the court.

SECTION 10. Staffing and training. — (a) The Commissioner shall appoint, subject to civil service rules, such staff members as may be necessary and proper to carry out the provisions of this Act.

(b) The staff shall be composed of public officials whose status and conditions of service are such that they are independent of changes of government and of improper external influences, and recruited with sole regard to their qualifications for the performance of their duties, that such qualifications shall be determined by competent authority, that such persons shall be free from political domination and influence, and that, subject to the needs of the service, they shall be assured of stability of employment in keeping with the highest standards of personnel administration.

(c) No person shall be appointed to any office or to any technical or professional position in the Service unless he has had adequate training for the performance of the duties of such office or position.

The Commissioner shall, immediately after assuming his duties, organize a special training course for applicants to offices and technical or professional positions in the Service, who may be appointed to such offices or positions upon qualifying in a civil service examination to be given at the end of such course.

The Commissioner shall also establish a permanent training program for members of the staff of the Service: Provided, That the said special training course for applicants to offices and technical or professional positions in the Service and the permanent training program shall be open to all who may desire to enroll in such training.

SECTION 11. Separability. — If any provision of this Act or the application of such provision to any person or circumstance shall be held invalid, the remainder of this Act, or the application of such provision to persons or circumstances other than those as to which it is held invalid, shall not be affected thereby. casia

SECTION 12. Appropriations. — To carry out the purpose of this Act, the sum of four hundred fifty thousand pesos or so much thereof as may be necessary, hereby authorized to be appropriated out of any funds in the National Treasury not otherwise appropriated.

SECTION 13. Effectivity. — This Act shall take effect on its approval.

Approved: June 20, 1952

Published in the Official Gazette, Vol. 48, No. 8, p. 3201 in August 1952