Underlining the importance of innovation to further the Aboitiz Group’s (the “Group”) federalization objectives, the AEV LMS’ Labor Relations and Compliance Team (the “Team”) launched the Incident Report Template/Generator, and the E-learning on Outsourcing on June 17, 2022 and July 27, 2022, respectively. No costs were incurred by the Team, and no costs were passed on to the Aboitiz business units (“BUs”) which benefited from these projects.
The primary objective for this project is increased efficiency. The employee discipline process usually starts with the BUs issuing a Notice to Explain/Show Cause Letter (“NTE”) to an erring employee. Previously, before an NTE is issued, it takes the HR, TLs, and the Team multiple exchanges of communication and meetings in order to gather and collate necessary and relevant information and evidence. With the Incident Report Template/Generator, the exchange of communication has been lessened, and at times, eliminated, making the review and issuance of NTEs a breeze.
The Incident Report Template/Generator allows the BUs to generate a report which will serve as a guide for their Human Resources Department (“HR”) and other decision-makers, esp. the team leaders (“TLs”) to: (1) better understand who the erring employee is, and what his/her infractions are; and (2) determine the appropriate sanction/s to be imposed, and the steps to be taken (e.g. pursue the administrative case, conduct an administrative hearing, absolve the employee of the charges). By having a uniform incident report, which contains relevant information about an erring employee and the incident, the employee discipline process is shortened, and management is able to save on time and resources.
Further, as part of the employee discipline process, opinions on the imposable penalty of more superior TLs who may have not taken part in the process are sought. Before these TLs can give their individual opinions, it takes HR and the TLs some time to come up with a summary of the employee discipline case. With the Incident Report Template/Generator, TLs, whose opinions are sought, can now immediately have an overview of an employee discipline case by just referring to one concise document — the incident report.
Users who have generated incident reports through the Template/Generator have found it to be “detailed and easy to fill out” as they were “guided (on) how (they) should write and create the report”.
E-LEARNING ON OUTSOURCING
Most, if not all, businesses consider outsourcing as a business necessity. At present, most companies hardly produce products or render services without outsourcing work to third-party contractors. Nowadays, BUs rarely hire employees for services such as janitorial, housekeeping, and security, and instead, outsource work to or engage the services of contractors.
While outsourcing is generally allowed, there are certain limitations under the law. One limitation is labor-only contracting. Labor-only contracting, in essence, exists when a contractor merely supplies workers to a principal. When a competent government authority finds that a labor-only contracting arrangement exists, it may direct the principal (i.e. BUs) to (1) regularize the employees of the contractor, and (2) give them the same compensation and benefits as those enjoyed by the principal’s regular employees.
In fact, labor-only contracting happens wittingly and unwittingly. There are many times when a contracting arrangement, which starts out as legitimate, becomes a labor-only contracting arrangement. This usually happens when BUs become too involved in the work that is being done by the contractor that they already exercise control over the means and methods of the work.
The Team has created a short but comprehensive e-learning on the basics of outsourcing. The e-learning provides guidance on how to prevent and avoid scenarios where BUs may be adjudged to having entered or engaged in labor-only contracting arrangements. A-students who finished the e-learning have found it to be “helpful” and “easy to understand” especially considering that relatable “examples (have been) provided”.
