Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2019, published 109th ILC session (2021)

Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87) - Philippines (Ratification: 1953)

Article 3 of the Convention. Right of workers’ organizations to organize their administration and activities and to formulate their programmes without interference by the public authorities. In its previous comments, the Committee requested the Government to provide statistics on the number and nature of cases dealt with by the Single Entry Approach Program (SEnA) institutionalized to de-judicialize the dispute-settlement procedures and foster fair, speedy and inexpensive labour justice. The Committee notes the information provided by the Government to the Committee on Freedom of Association (see 391st Report, October 2019, Case No. 2745, paragraph 44), indicating that the SEnA, which provides for an institutionalized 30-day mandatory conciliation-mediation service on all individual and collective labour and employment disputes as the first approach, resulted in a decline in the number of assumption of jurisdiction cases and cases certified for compulsory arbitration, because it accorded workers and employers an option for less conflictual, speedy, inexpensive and efficient settlement or resolution of money claims and labour issues. The Government provides statistics in this regard, showing that as the number of settled requests for assistance under the SEnA increased, the number of cases referred to compulsory arbitration generally decreased. Taking due note of this information and recalling that, as previously indicated by the Government, notices of strike and lockout are exempt from its coverage, the Committee requests the Government to continue to provide statistics on the number and nature of cases dealt with by the SEnA.