MANILA – The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) recently convened a Technical Working Group (TWG) meeting to review Department Order No. 149, otherwise known as the Guidelines in Assessing and Determining Hazardous Work in the Employment of Persons Below 18 Years of Age, on 23 January 2025 at the DOLE Central Office in Intramuros, Manila.

The TWG meeting was jointly chaired by DOLE Assistant Secretary Amuerfina R. Reyes of the Workers’ Welfare and Protection Cluster and Director Leilani M. Reynoso of the Bureau of Workers with Special Concerns (BWSC). Participants included representatives from the Bureau of Working Conditions (BWC), the Occupational Safety and Health Center (OSHC), and the Institute for Labor Studies (ILS), with Ms. Lyra Cosette B. Dayego of the Labor and Social Relations Research Division representing the Institute.

The meeting aimed to review the updated draft of Department Order No. 149, incorporating inputs and comments from TWG member bureaus, offices, and regional units, as well as harmonizing feedback gathered during previous stakeholder consultations.

In April 2025, recognizing the need to further strengthen the country’s policy framework on child labor prevention, DOLE, through BWSC as TWG Secretariat, earlier initiated consultations to update Department Order No. 149, Series of 2016, which sets the standards for identifying hazardous work prohibited for persons below 18 years of age.

As technical secretariat of the Technical Committee on Legislative Matters (TCLM), ILS plays a key role in the review process by consolidating DOLE’s policy positions and providing technical inputs on proposed and existing legislative measures, including implementing rules and regulations (IRRs), draft IRRs, and Department Orders.

For the 20th Congress, the TCLM has supported the formulation of several DOLE policy positions and contributed to the drafting and amendment of IRRs and Department Orders on priority labor measures, including the Magna Carta for Filipino Seafarers (Section 59), the Caregivers Act, the Eddie Garcia Law, the Alien Employment Permit (AEP) system, and the Enterprise-Based Education and Training (EBET) framework, as well as policy inputs on wages, freelance work, waste workers, and the informal economy, among others.

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