The Muntinlupa City Council amended the ordinance requiring businesses to employ 70 percent of their rank-and-file workers from local residents.

All companies under existing Ordinances 08-028 and 96-80 that have at least five employees are mandated to hire at least 70 percent of their rank-and-file employees from among Muntinlupa residents.

During a recent city council session, Ordinance 2024-151, which amended previous ordinances, was passed, amending the former ordinances.

Under the amended ordinance, excluded in the scope of the local law are the banking sector and any industry mandated by law to implement periodic forced rotation of employees.

Section 6 of Ordinance 96-80 was also amended. Under the new provision, all companies in Muntinlupa including business establishments that contract or avail of rank-and-file employees from service agencies located outside the city are required to submit a yearly report of the list of their employees.

The list will be submitted to the Muntinlupa Public Employment Service Office (PESO) by 30 September of every year.

The PESO monitors all business establishments and companies in Muntinlupa for their compliance with the 70-percent workforce requirement.

The office said the ordinance addresses the unemployment problem in the city by giving Muntinlupeños assurance to be employed by companies.

Companies under the existing ordinance are required to submit to the PESO and Business Permit and Licensing Office (BPLO) a list of employees as part of requirements in the issuance of business permits.

In the amended law, in addition to submitting the age, address, period of employment in the company, and position and duties of employees, companies are now required to submit the employee’s gender, employees who are classified as persons with disabilities (PWDs) and senior citizens, and the company’s reason for not meeting the 50 percent compliance rating in the employment of Muntinlupa residents.

PESO-Muntinlupa head Glenda Aninon explained that the submission of the list of PWD and senior citizen employees will be used to monitor if companies are hiring employees from the two sectors.

Amendment of the ordinance is also meant to bridge the gap between what skills companies need and to inform the educational sector, which can come up with new programs and courses for students, Aninon explained.

It also included provisions in protecting personal information and privileged information of employees under Republic Act 10173 or the Data Privacy Act of 2012. An employee that will be included in the list that will be submitted to the Muntinlupa City government should be informed of the data privacy notice.