DOLE urges employers to adopt 'green jobs' policy

Philippine labor officials reiterated their call to employers to adopt a green or environmentally-friendly job policy to expand job opportunities. Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz said there will be new demand for labor from "green" investments, a scenario that will benefit everyone. “It is a fact that employment levels in the country have not expanded sufficiently despite substantial economic growth. The argument in favor of green jobs is that new demand for labor from green investments will expand job opportunities," she said in a news release posted on the Labor Department website. She said the DOLE has some green initiatives, including a tree-planting last July 29 along C6 Road in Taguig City. That activity attracted 800 participants from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and City of Taguig, she said. At least 1,500 banaba seedlings were planted along the sidewalks of the busy highway, she said. In Region 12, Baldoz cited the DOLE’s P800,000-vermi-cast organic fertilizer production project in Alabel, Saranggani, which employs at lesat 25 workers. Baldoz likewise cited the P326,000 charcoal briquette production in Tantangan, South Cotabato which benefits 37 self-employed persons. Also, she said the Philippine Development Plan 2011-2016 and its sectoral plan for labor and employment, the Labor and Employment Plan (LEP) 2011-2016, set priorities and directions in favor of the environment and green jobs. She also noted Executive Order No. 26 harmonizes and consolidates all the country’s greening efforts under a National Greening Program. “The LEP, for example, calls for improving employment levels by developing and harmonizing green programs and is very emphatic on enhancing efficiency and productivity. We believe these can be achieved through the development and implementation of green programs, as well as through the promotion of sustainable consumption and production patterns," she said. Baldoz also cited the DOLE’s Green Our DOLE Program (GODP), which she said seeks to empower the department and its family or agencies as “agents of green change" in the country. This can be done by:

• Equipping DOLE officials and employees with the knowledge, skills, and behavioral capacity to actively involve themselves in green workplace productivity programs; and
• Implementing green principles and strategies in all DOLE programs, projects, and services down to the grassroots level.

Baldoz said the DOLE through the GODP actively collaborates with other government agencies and its tripartite partners in the National Greening Program as mandated by President Aquino III to ensure biodiversity and food security. These in turn will address the problems on climate change and poverty reduction. — LBG, GMA News