CEBU CITY, Cebu, Jan. 31 (PIA) -- About P44.6 million has been awarded to almost 2,000 workers in Central Visayas after seeking assistance under the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE’s) Single Entry Approach (SEnA) program.

SEnA is an administrative approach to provide a speedy, impartial, inexpensive, and accessible settlement procedure of all labor issues or conflicts to prevent them from ripening into full-blown disputes or actual labor cases.

The months that registered the highest amount of monetary awards produced under SEnA included February with P5.6M awarded to affected workers, followed by November with P5.3M; January with P4.9M; September with P4.3M; and April with P4.2M.

DOLE7 Officer in Charge-Regional Director Lilia Estillore said the monetary benefits were an offshoot of the settled requests for assistance (RFAs) lodged under SEnA for the whole year of 2022 that were received and handled by the different field offices and divisions of DOLE-7.

"We have our Single Entry Assistance Desk Officers or SEADOs, who ensured the disposition of RFAs received not later than the 30 calendar days process cycle time,” said Estillore.

Among the five field offices of DOLE7, the Tri-City Field Office (TCFO) covering the cities of Cebu, Mandaue and Lapulapu had the biggest amount at P19.3M which benefited 880 workers.

Next is the Negros Oriental Field Office (NOFO), which awarded P10.7M to 449 workers.

The Cebu Provincial Field Office (CPFO), for its part, tallied 286 workers, who benefited from the P7.6M monetary award.

In the province of Bohol, there were 333 workers who were collectively awarded with P6.5M.

In Siquijor, 35 affected workers benefits from over P422,000. 

Estillore noted that for the settled requests for assistance, the average duration to settle such only lasted for about six days as against the process cycle time of 30 calendar days to settle and dispose a request for assistance.

 “We want to raise awareness among our customers that all employer-employee-related concerns and disputes would really have to go through this mechanism first before anyone could file a formal complaint,” she said. (HFG/PIA7 with reports from DOLE7)