Article 15Bureau of Employment Services

(a) The Bureau of Employment Services shall be primarily responsible for developing and monitoring a comprehensive employment program. It shall have the power and duty:12 Sec. 3 of E.O. No. 797 (1982), "Reorganizing the Ministry of Labor and Employment, Creating the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, and for Other Purposes," created the Bureau of Local Employment which assumed the functions of the Bureau of Apprenticeship and the domestic employment functions of the Bureau of Employment Services.

Functions enumerated under paragraph (a) have been superseded by Sec. 17, Chapter 4, Title VII, Book IV of E.O. No. 292 (1987), "Administrative Code of 1987", Section 17.

Bureau of Local Employment. - The Bureau of Local Employment shall: (1) Formulate policies, standards and procedures on productive manpower resources, development, utilization and allocation; (2) Establish and administer a machinery for the effective allocation of manpower resources for maximum employment and placement; (3) Develop and maintain a responsive vocational guidance and testing system in aid of proper human resources allocation; (4) Regulate and supervise private sector participation in the recruitment and placement of workers locally under such rules and regulations as may be issued by the Secretary; (5) Establish and maintain a registration or work permit system to regulate employment of aliens; (6) Develop and maintain a labor market information system in aid of proper manpower and development planning; 5 of 159 1.

To formulate and develop plans and programs to implement the employment promotion objectives of this Title; 2. To establish and maintain a registration and/or licensing system to regulate private sector participation in the recruitment and placement of workers, locally and overseas, and to secure the best possible terms and conditions of employment for Filipino contract workers and compliance therewith under such rules and regulations as may be issued by the Minister of Labor; 3. To formulate and develop employment programs designed to benefit disadvantaged groups and communities; 4. To establish and maintain a registration and/or work permit system to regulate the employment of aliens; 5.

To develop a labor market information system in aid of proper manpower and development planning; 6. To develop a responsive vocational guidance and testing system in aid of proper human resources allocation; and 7. To maintain a central registry of skills, except seamen. (b) The regional offices of the Ministry of Labor shall have the original and exclusive jurisdiction over all matters or cases involving employer-employee relations including money claims, arising out of or by virtue of any law or contracts involving Filipino workers for overseas employment except seamen: Provided,That the Bureau of Employment Services may, in the case of the National Capital Region, exercise such power, whenever the Minister of Labor deems it appropriate.

The decisions of the regional offices of the Bureau of Employment Services, if so authorized by the Minister of Labor as provided in this Article, shall be appealable to the National Labor Relations Commission upon the same grounds provided in Article 223 13hereof. The decisions of the National Labor Relations Commission shall be final and unappealable. (c) The Minister of Labor shall have the power to impose and collect fees based on rates recommended by the Bureau of Employment Services. Such fees shall be deposited in the National Treasury as a special account of the General Fund, for the promotion of the objectives of the Bureau of Employment Services, subject to the provisions of Section 40 of Presidential Decree No. 1177.15