WORK IMMERSION

Lesson 4 Rights & Duties of Employees & Employers, Confidentiality

in the Workplace and Effective Conflict Resolution

Republic Act No. 110581 is an Act

Strengthening Compliance with Occupational
Safety and Health Standards and providing
Violations Thereof. Its Section 1 tells that “The State
affirms labor as a primary social and economic force, and
that a safe and healthy workforce is integral part. The
State shall ensure a safe and healthful workforce for all
working people by affording them a full protection
against all hazards in their work environment.

Chapter III Section 4 of this R.A 110581 states the Duties

and Rights of Employers, Workers and Other Persons.

Every employer, contractor or subcontractor, if any, and any person who

manages, controls, or supervises the work being undertaken shall:

Duties of Employers
1. 1 . Furnish the workers a place of employment free from hazardous
conditions that are causing or are likely to cause death, illness r physical
harm to the workers.
2. Give complete job safety instructions or orientation to all the workers
especially to those entering the job for the first time.
3. Inform the workers of the hazard associated with their work, health
risks involved or to which they are exposed to.
4. Use only approved devices and equipment for the workplace.
5. Comply with OSH Standards including training, medical examination and
where necessary provision of protective and safety devices such
as personal protective equipment (PPE) and machine guards
6. Allow workers and their safety and health representatives to participate
actively in the process of organizing, planning, implementing and
evaluating the safety and health program.
7. Provide where necessary, for measure to deal with emergencies and
accidents including first aid arrangements.

Duties of the Workers

1. 1 . Every worker shall participate in ensuring compliance with OSH
standards in the workplace. The worker shall make proper use of all
safeguards and safety devices furnished for the worker’s protection and that
of others, and shall observe instructions to prevent accidents or imminent
danger situations in the workplace. The worker shall
observe the prescribed steps to be taken in case of emergency.
2. 2 . The worker shall report to the supervisor any work hazard that may be
encountered in the workplace.

Duties of Other Persons

1. 1 . It shall be the duty of any person including the builder or contractor who
visits, builds, renovates, or installs devices or conducts
business in any establishment or workplace, to comply with the provision of
this Act and in any regulations issued by the Secretary
of Labor and Employment.
W2. Whenever two or more undertakings are engaged in activities
simultaneously in one workplace, it shall be the duty of all engaged
to collaborate in the application of OSH standards and regulations.

Section 5 – 8: Workers’ Rights

Workers’ Rights
1. 1. Workers’ The right to safety and health at work shall be
Right To Know guaranteed. All workers shall be appropriately
informed by the employer about all types of hazards
in the workplace, provided access to training and
education on chemical safety, and to orientation on
the data sheet of chemical safety, electrical safety
mechanical safety and ergonomical safety.
2. Workers’ Right to The workers has the right of refusal to work without
Refuse Unsafe threat or reprisal from the employer if, as
Work determined by the DOLE, an imminent danger
situation exits in the workplace that may result in
illness, injury or death corrective actions to
eliminate the danger that have not undertaken by
the employer.
3. The Right to Workers and their representatives shall have the
Report right to report accidents, dangerous occurrences,
Accidents and hazards to the employer, to the DOLE and to
other concerned government agencies exercising
jurisdiction as the competent authority in the
specific industry or economic activity.
4. Workers’ Every employer, contractor or subcontractor, if any,
Right to shall provide his workers free of charge protective
Personal equipment for their eyes, face, hands and feet, and
Protective lifeline, safety belt or harness, gas or dust
Equipment respirators or masks, and protective shields
(PPE) whenever necessary by reason of the hazardous
work process or environment, chemical,
radiological, mechanical and other irritants or
hazards capable of causing injury or impairment in
any part of the body through absorption, inhalation
or personal contact. All PPE shall be of the
appropriate type as tested and approved by the
DOLE based on its standards.

Besides knowing the rights and duties of employers,

employees and other persons, you, who may be one of
them soon need to learn what confidentiality in the
workplace is.
In some instances, confidentiality refers to not discussing internal
goings-on with co-workers. In other instances, it refers to not sharing
trade secrets and other company information with competitors, the press
or anyone outside of your company.
Confidentiality has both casual and legal definitions.
Casual Definition of Confidentiality
If you repeat confidential statements made by co-workers, even if the
original source doesn’t hear about your gossip, the people you tell might
lose respect for you and no longer trust you. If you gossip with
customers, they might tell your competitors, who will be less likely to
hire you in the future.
Examples of breaking casual, confidential communications are:
repeating a co-worker’s opinion of his boss,
revealing the fact that a peer is interviewing with another company,
forwarding a confidential email from one employee to another,
sharing information, you overhead others discussing or passing
around a document you found that wasn’t intended for others.
So, those must be avoided if you become an employee or even a trainee.

Legal Definition of Confidentiality

Once you become an employee or worker, you may have access to
information for your company such as salaries, employee perks, client
lists, trade secrets, sales numbers, customer information, news about
pending terminations, reasons for a firing, phone codes or computer
passwords. Your employers don’t want the employees to divulge or
reveal them to others when you are still working or even when you are
leaving the company. There instances that they will ask the employees to
sign a confidentiality agreement to keep the secrets even if they leave
already.
Legal Examples:
As an employee or worker, you must not divulge the following
information:

recipes financial information,

research website traffic statistics
patents

customer lists computer and building security information.

production processes

companies that collect data on customers cannot share this information with
other companies unless it informs customers in advance, such as when
businesses share email lists. Personnel information is confidential, and
information in an employee’s file, such as social security number, salary,
health records, disciplinary actions and termination reason can’t be
discussed with other employees.
Divulging inside information can damage your former employer, allowing
them to sue you to recover those damages. So, avoid revealing
confidential information to anybody.

What is The Data Privacy Act of the Philippines?

The Data Privacy Act (DPA), or Republic Act No. 10173 was passed by
the Philippines Congress in 2012 and finally implemented five years
later in 2016. RA 10173 assures the “free flow of information to promote
innovation and growth” (Republic Act. No. 10173, Ch. 1, Sec. 2) while
protecting the users’ fundamental rights to privacy.
How is it implemented?

RA 10173 protects and maintains the right of customers to

confidentiality by setting a legal list of rules for companies to regulate
the collection, handling, and disposal of all personal information.
Companies legally responsible for keeping their customers’ data protected
from third parties or any form of misuse, internally or externally.

What is “personal information?”

“‘Personal information’” refers to any information, whether recorded in

a material form or not, from which the identity of an individual is
apparent or can be reasonably and directly ascertained by the entity
holding the information, or when put together with other information
would directly and certainly identify an individual” (Republic Act. No.
10173, Ch. 1, Sec. 3).

What is “sensitive personal information?”

“(1) About an individual’s race, ethnic origin, marital status, age, color,
and religious, philosophical or political affiliations;
About an individual’s health, education, genetic or sexual life of a
person, or to any proceeding for any offense committed or alleged to
have been committed by such person, the disposal of such
proceedings, or the sentence of any court in such proceedings;
Issued by government agencies peculiar to an individual who
includes, but not limited to, social security numbers, previous or
cm-rent health records, licenses or its denials, suspension or
revocation, and tax returns.

Whatever kind of information may it be data information, medical,

health, personal and sensitive personal information, any worker or
individual must show confidentiality of information.

Besides confidentiality, trainees, workers, employees and employers

must take into consideration also the conflict resolution and
prevention in the workplace.

Conflict is a state of incompatibility of ideas between two or more parties

or individuals. It is also a natural disagreement resulting from
individuals or groups that differ in attitudes, beliefs, values or needs.
Conflict Resolution Techniques:
1. Listen then speak out.
2. It is better for the two involved parties to speak and listen to one
another to identify the root and nature of the conflict.
3. Gather the group.
4. The employers must also arrange meeting to discuss the issue and
think of the immediate solutions to satisfy everyone.
5. Be impartial.
6. Do not take sides but instead listen to both parties.
7. Do not postpone conflicts resolution.
8. If the conflict arises, it is better to immediately address the issue.
Postponing it may affect everyone’s performance and conflict might be
aggravated by others.
9. Promote teamwork.
11.It is best to remind the staff the importance of working as a team.
12.Broadcast praises.
13.If the good deeds are spread to everyone in the workplace, this makes
everyone motivated and encouraged to do the same.

How will the conflict be prevented?

1. Being open. It is better to express the issue and deal with them.
2. Maintain clear communication. Articulate thoughts clearly to one
another in the workplace.
3. Encourage different points of view and evaluate each fairly.
4. Demonstrate respect for team members rather than resorting to
blame game.
5. Keep team issues within the team. Talking of the issues outside
will result to bigger and longer conflict.