Davao City- The Department of Labor and Employment Regional Office No. XI conducted an Orientation on Kapatiran WISE-TAV last March 9, 2012 at Royal Mandaya Hotel, Palma Gil St., Davao City.  32 participants from 15 different companies were oriented on the program that encourages big companies (BIG BROTHER) to practice corporate social responsibilities by coaching small companies (SMALL BROTHER) to become compliant with labor laws and Occupational Safety and Health Standards (OSHS).

Regional Director Joffrey Suyao emphasized that the KAPATIRAN WISE-TAV program has long been existing in the region and that Secretary Baldoz instructed all Regional Offices to push for the enrolment of big companies as Big Brothers to harness public-private partnership as an avenue towards cultivating a culture of voluntary compliance with labor standards and OSH in the company.  The participants were HR Directors and Officers from multi-national companies and Academic Institutions, namely; Unifrutti Group of Companies, Davao Sugar Central Co., Inc (DASUCECO), Universal Robina Corporation (URC), Del Monte Fresh Produce, Davao Doctors College, Brokenshire College, Union Galvasteel Corporation, and Davao del Sur Electric Cooperative (DASURECO).

The KAPATIRAN WISE-TAV  Para sa Mas Ligtas, Malusog at Produktibong Manggagawa is a flagship public-private partnership program of DOLE.  It is anchored on the ILO’s Work-Improvement on Small Enterprise. This approach has proven to yield productivity and promote healthy and safety working conditions.

At present there are 20 Big Brothers and 55 Small Brothers enrolled in the program with 21,000 workers who are benefitting from safer and healthier workplaces.

10 more Big brothers are expected to enrol in the program this year