ILS Supervising Labor and Employment Officer Miraluna S. Tacadao from the Labor and Social Relations Research Division attended the “First Validation Workshop of the Regional Study on Changing Nature of Employment Relationships as the Impact of the Use of ICT and Adequacy of Legislations in Regulating Employment Relationships”last July 20-30 in Hanoi, Vietnam.

The two-day plenary event was attended and participated in by representatives from the following Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Member-States (AMS) namely, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PRD, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines and Viet Nam. Meanwhile, Brunei, Singapore, and Thailand were not present.

Ms. Tacadao, as part of the Philippine delegation, was joined by Ms. Maribel S.T. Oliveros, Chief of the Administrative Division from the Employees' Compensation Commission (ECC) and Ms. Charish D. Mungcal, Labor and Employment Officer III from the Bureau of Local Employment (BLE).

Also present in the workshop are representatives of the ASEAN Secretariat, ASEAN Sectoral Bodies and project consultants from the JustJob Network, Ms. Sara Elder of the International Labour Organization (ILO) and Mr. Jeff Ducanes, consultant for the study on information employment statistics in AMS..

The workshop aimed to create an opportunity for representatives from different member countries, particularly labor ministries and related international agencies/organizations to share relevant information (e.g. global trends of changing world work, informal employment statistics, country practices), as well as to validate the findings and solicit recommendations of the draft report and discuss the next steps in the research.

The Philippine delegation shared that the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) is actively practicing and promoting tripartism, in which issuance of any regulations is subjected to consultation with the workers and employers’ representatives. This mechanism puts forward the best interest of the workers without undue burdening the business sector. They also stressed the importance of understanding the profiles, circumstances, and needs of workers in new forms of employment (e.g. platform workers such as Grab drivers). Further, employment relationships were altered by technological advancements, giving the platform workers with a trilateral relationship, where the platform acts as an intermediary, decent work must still be ensured

The workshop further engaged participants from ASEAN Member-States (AMS) as they assessed the effects of technology, specifically the platforms, which resulted to new forms of work, thereby affecting employment relationships.

Recommendations were solicited on how labor policies and regulations should evolve in response to the changing world of work to ensure smooth functioning of labor markets and achieve inclusive economic growth