AN ACT TO PROVIDE FOR THE ORGANIZATION OF A NATIONAL EMPLOYMENT SERVICE

REPUBLIC ACT No. 761             June 20, 1952

AN ACT TO PROVIDE FOR THE ORGANIZATION OF A NATIONAL EMPLOYMENT SERVICE
(REPEALED BY )

SECTION 1. National Employment Service; Creation of. - In order to ensure the best possible organization of the employment market as an integral part of the national program for the achievement and maintenance of maximum employment and the development and use of productive resources, there is hereby established a national system of free public employment offices to be known as the National Employment Service, hereinafter referred to as the Service. The Service shall be under the executive supervision and control of the Department of Labor, and shall have a chief who shall be known as the Commissioner of the National Employment Service hereinafter referred to as Commissioner. Said Commissioner shall be appointed by the President of the Philippines with the consent of the Commission on Appointments and shall receive compensation at the rate of nine thousand pesos per annum. A Deputy Commissioner shall also be appointed by the President of the Philippines with the consent of the Commission on Appointments and shall receive compensation at the rate of seven thousand two hundred pesos per annum.

Upon the organization of the Service, the existing Placement Bureau and the existing Employment Office in the Commission of Social Welfare shall be abolished, and all the files, records, supplies, equipment, qualified personnel and unexpended balances of appropriations of said Bureau and Commission pertaining to said bureau or office shall thereupon be transferred to the Service.

The Service shall administer Act Numbered Twenty-four hundred and eighty-six entitled, "An Act fixing a tax upon every person or entity engaged in recruiting or contracting laborers in the Philippines, and amending sub-section (a) of section fifty-three of Act Numbered Twenty-three hundred thirty-nine." The Service shall also administer Act Numbered Thirty-nine hundred and fifty-seven, entitled, "An Act to regulate the activities of private employment agencies, punish violators hereof and for other purposes." Whenever the phrase "Director of Labor" appears in said Acts, it shall hereafter be taken to read Commissioner of the National Employment Service."

Section 2. Employment Service Advisory Council; Advisory Committees. - There is hereby established a National Employment Service Advisory Council to advise and assist the Secretary of Labor and the Commissioner in the organization and operation of the Service and in the development of employ-service policy. The Council shall be composed of five technical men whose training and experience in labor problems and associations qualify them as such; two representatives of employers and two representatives of labor and one member who is not openly identified either with labor or employers' groups to be appointed by the Secretary of Labor after consultation with employers' and workers' organizations. Members of the Council shall receive a per diem of ten pesos for every meeting attended but which will not exceed fifty pesos per month and in addition shall be entitled to reimbursement for traveling and other expenses actually incurred in attendance to the duties of the Council. The Commissioner shall make available to the members of the Council the records of the Service.

Upon the recommendation of the Council, the Secretary of Labor may appoint such national, regional, or local employment advisory committees as may be desirable. Each of such committees shall have an equal number of representatives of employers and employees as shall be appointed after consultation with employers' and workers' organizations. Each such committee shall also have one member who shall represent the public interest and act as chairman.

Section 3. Public employment offices. - The Commissioner shall establish, reestablish, or move, upon advice of the Council and with the approval of the Secretary of Labor, a headquarters office and district and local public employment offices in such number and in such places as will best promote the purposes of this Act and as may be authorized by law.

Section 4. General duties and powers. - Its shall be the duty of the Service -

The Commissioner shall have the power to require any person, organization, or institution to submit information or employment reports in such form and containing such particulars as he may, by rule or regulation, prescribe.

The Commissioner, with the approval of the Secretary of Labor, shall have the power to make, amend, and rescind such rules and regulations and orders as may be necessary to carry out the purposes of this Act.

Section 5. Placement and recruitment. - To ensure effective placement and recruitment, the Service shall -

The Service will furnish all government entities, including government-owned or government-controlled corporations that hire laborers all such information, data or statistics that the Service will have compiled.

Section 6. Employment counselling and testing. - The Service shall establish an employment counselling and testing service for the purpose of giving assistance to any person who may require aid in choosing an occupation or in changing his occupation, or of promoting the vocational readjustment of any person who may require such assistance. Employment counselling and testing shall be organized in close relation with -

The Service shall take all appropriate measures to extend the facilities of employment counselling and testing in the case of -

The Service shall, where appropriate, assist such persons to obtain vocational training or re-training.

Section 7. Transfer of workers. - The Service shall take all proper legal steps to remove economic barriers to the transfer of workers. It may extend financial assistance by way of loan, in the case transfer of workers which it deems necessary, particularly where no other arrangements exist for the payment other than by workers of the expenses involved in such transfer.

The Service may arrange for the payment of the expenses of the transfer of workers by the employer upon whose application such workers are being recruited. If any employer who applies for workers engages other workers before the person or persons recruited by the Secretary can reach the place of employment, such person or persons shall be entitled to reimbursement from the employer for the traveling expenses incurred by them, including the expenses for the return journey.

The Service shall furnish applicants for employment and workers generally the fullest and most reliable information concerning employment opportunities and working conditions in other areas and concerning the living conditions, including availability of suitable housing accommodations, in such areas. When the Commissioner finds that there is a surplus of any type of labor in any area or that there is a shortage of suitable housing accommodations in any area, he shall cause that fact to be published and shall take appropriate measures to discourage the migration of job seekers to such area until the situation is remedied.

Section 8. Employment market information and analysis. - The Service shall collect and disseminate such detailed information on the situation of the employment market as may be useful to other public agencies in social and economic planning and to employers in organizing productive enterprises. Such information shall contain material pertaining to -

The Service shall, on the basis of the information in its possession, cooperate with other public agencies in the formation, coordination and application of policy in regard to -

The Service shall, as soon as practicable, and in cooperation with other public agencies, draw up annually a manpower budget as a part of the general economic survey, which shall include detailed material concerning the anticipated volume and distribution of labor demand and supply.

Section 9. Penalty. - Any person who shall violate the provisions of this Act or any rule or regulation promulgated hereunder shall be punished by a fine of not less than one hundred pesos nor more than one thousand pesos or by imprisonment for not less than thirty days nor more than six months, or by both, such fine and imprisonment in the discretion of the court.

Section 10. Staffing and training. - (a) The Commissioner shall appoint, subject to civil service rules, such staff members as may be necessary and proper to carry out the provisions of this Act.

(b) The staff shall be composed of public officials whose status and conditions of service are such that they are independent of changes of government and of improper external influences, and recruited with sole regard to their qualifications for the performance of their duties, that such qualifications shall be determined by competent authority, that such persons shall be free from political domination and influence, and that, subject to the needs of the service, they shall be assured of stability of employment in keeping with the highest standards of personnel administration.

(c) No person shall be appointed to any office or to any technical or professional position in the Service unless he has had adequate training for the performance of the duties of such office or position.

The Commissioner shall, immediately after assuming his duties, organize a special training course for applicants to offices and technical or professional positions in the Service, who may be appointed to such offices or positions upon qualifying in a civil service examination to be given at the end of such course.

The Commissioner shall also establish a permanent training program for members of the staff of the Service: Provided, That the said special training course for applicants to offices and technical or professional positions in the Service and the permanent training program shall be open to all who may desire to enroll in such training.

Section 11. Separability. - If any provision of this Act or the application of such provision to any person or circumstance shall be held invalid, the remainder of this Act, or the application of such provision to persons or circumstances other than those as to which it is held invalid, shall not be affected thereby.

Section 12. Appropriations. - To carry out the purpose of this Act, the sum of four hundred fifty thousand pesos or so much thereof as may be necessary, hereby authorized to be appropriated out of any funds in the National Treasury not otherwise appropriated.

Section 13. Effectivity. - This Act shall take effect on its approval.

Approved: June 20, 1952