Manila – The Institute for Labor Studies (ILS) conducted its very first remote General Assembly via Zoom last July 9, 2020 led by Executive Director Ahmma Charisma Lobrin-Satumba and Acting Deputy Executive Director Patrick P. Patriwirawan, Jr.

The general assembly discussed in detail the reformulated 2020 Office Performance Commitment and Review (OPCR) centering on its core indicators under its Organizational Outcome and Labor and Employment Research Program together with its non-core indicators under the Institute’s Support to Operations and General Administration and Support Services. More importantly, under its Labor and Employment Research Program, the Institute’s 2020 service realization process categories were rationalized under two clusters: 1. research services; and 2. research communication services.

Under its reformulated submission for 2020, the Institute has committed a total of eight policy research papers namely: 1) Assessment of local employment facilitation services during COVID-19 pandemic; 2) Review of employment outcomes in public works programs; 3) Study on addressing low female labor force participation in the time of COVID; 4) Study on Wage Subsidy; 5) Study on Telecommuting; 6) Study on workers' mental health amidst the COVID19 crisis; 7) Prospects and Challenges of a Basic Income Guarantee; and 8) Analysis of Convention 190 vis-à-vis the Philippine Policies on Violence and Harassment in the Workplace.

The reformulation of the 2020 OPCR is in line with the Department’s directive to recalibrate existing targets indicating challenges and opportunities in the implementation of the office mandate in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. The assembly was also a venue to refresh all employees on its Business Process Map as streamlined into four major processes: Management, Resource Management, Service Realization, and Measurement Analysis and Improvement, in preparation for the ISO 9001:2015 external audit - certification maintenance for 2020.