The maritime industry proves to be vital in economic progress, deploying a total of about 400,000 Filipino seafarers abroad. Given their sheer volume, it is quite expected for Filipino crew claims for losses in cases of work-related disability or death to arise. However, the current labor dispute settlement system is criticized for being too legalistic and adversarial in nature.

One of the landmark initiatives of the Department of Labor and Employment in reforming the current adjudication process is the implementation of the 30-day mandatory conciliation-mediation through the Single Entry Approach or SEnA.

Since its implementation, requests for assistance by seafarers have increased at an average of 64.2% annually; however, case settlement remains slow (51.29%). The study attempts to determine the factors that facilitate or hinder the settlement of maritime requests. The paper further attempts to draw insights from the experiences of agencies that have achieved high annual settlement rates as well as the experiences of local manning companies. It proposes strategic solutions toward improving the present program in maritime dispute resolution.

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Title: Challenges and Constraints to Achieving High Settlement Rate in SEnA A Case Study of the Maritime Sector
Researcher: Carl Rookie O. Daquio