Undersecretary
Department of Labor and Employment

ATTY. JOSEPHUS B. JIMENEZ, the Undersecretary of the Department of Labor and Employment, is a Career Executive Service Officer (CESO), a well-experienced Human Resource Development Executive, a successful Labor Relations practitioner, and a civic leader.  He has had more than 30 years of solid experience in managing and leading people, solving people-related problems and building  the capabilities of students, subordinates and clients.

As Undersecretary of Labor and Employment, Atty. Jimenez has been designated as follows:

He has had a successful career in San Miguel Corporation for more than 12 years, in Petron (Petrophil) (PNOC) for 3 years, in the DOLE/NLRC for 5 years.  He has successfully managed the change and corporate transformation of Pepsi Cola Products Philippines, Inc., and has achieved industrial peace for more than five (5) years.  He has reached a level of excellence in the HR profession that has been well recognized.  He is often consulted on strategic issues involving HR and LR problems.

He is an experienced labor relations lawyer with various training exposures here and in New York, San Francisco, Singapore, Geneva and Honolulu, Hawaii.  He has been recognized as a FELLOW in Personnel Management, a rare honor given only to the top 5% of the country’s HR professionals.  He has been nominated as the PERSONNEL MANAGER OF THE YEAR by PMAP in 1998.  He was also nominated to the prestigious TOYM (TEN OUTSTANDING YOUNG MEN) OF THE YEAR 1989-1990 of the Philippine Jaycees.

He is a Law Professor, a career HRD and labor relations practitioner, an author of books,  a newspaper columnist, a community leader, a Personnel Management Consultant, and a regular professional lecturer on labor relations seminars and symposia.  He was a labor organizer in his college days, then a career labor official in the government.  He started as a barrio farm hand, a laborer, a working student and a government clerk.  Today, he is a respected authority on labor laws and labor relations.

He passed the Bar with a rating of 84.93% at the age of 24 despite the fact that he could not afford to take Bar Review classes then.

Teaching in the University of the Visayas College of Law from 1978, he was one of the country’s youngest Law Professors at 28.  he is now teaching labor laws in University of the East College of Law, FEU Institute of Law and UST Faculty of Civil Law.  He is also a BAR REVIEWER in four (4) universities and some review centers and a lecturer in UP School of Labor and Industrial Relations.  He is a sought-after speaker in professional conventions and conferences.

He used to write a regular column in the BUSINESS STAR entitled "LABOR ISSUES."  Later, he wrote a column in the PHILIPPINE DAILY INQUIRER entitled “Labor Management Forum” that came out every Friday in the Business Section.  He was also a DOLE-NCMB duly-accredited Voluntary Arbitrator who was authorized to hear and decide labor disputes.  As such, he handled hundreds of voluntary arbitration cases.  He was awarded as one of the TEN OUTSTANDING ARBITRATORS in the country in 1995.  He was also a member of the Board of Editors of the Integral Bar Law Journal for many years.

He wrote volumes of labor law books and pamphlets, the latest of which is the PHILIPPINE LABOR LAWS AND JURISPRUDENCE which he finished writing prior to his appointment as Undersecretary of DOLE.

At the age of 27, he earned a Presidential appointment as Labor Arbiter, making him the nation’s youngest Labor Judge, and the first Cebuano to be elevated to such position.  As such, he handled and decided thousands of labor disputes involving strikes, unfair labor practices, deadlocks in collective bargaining, illegal dismissals, and money claims.  He has built a strong network of alliances in government, trade unions and management groups.

From the grades to Graduate School, he has been a consistent honor student and full academic scholar.

He graduated from the College of Law MAGNA CUM LAUDE and CLASS VALEDICTORIAN.  He was the President of the Supreme Student Council with no less than thirty thousand students while he was still a law sophomore at the University of Visayas.  He was also a recognized academic achiever, ardent leader and campus journalist and debater in Southwestern University where he finished his AB Major in English and Political Science in three (3) years.

He is both an academic achiever, a natural leader and a professional manager and “GURU”.

At the UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES where he was a MM (Masters in Management) full scholar, he was conferred by then UP President O.D. Corpuz, a Certificate of Merit for Academic Excellence.

He was trained at the Development Academy of the Philippines in a nine-month live-in, intensive management and executive leadership structured learning experience where he finished with a rating of OUTSTANDING, topping a class of 35 executives from various government agencies who were selected nationwide from more than a thousand applicants.  It was in that rigid screening process that Atty. Jimenez got a rating of 99.197% in a series of Management Aptitude Tests.

He worked for the government from 1975 to 1983 at the Department of Labor and Employment as Labor Arbiter, Conciliator Med-Arbiter and in various capacities involved in the settlement of labor disputes.  As such, he has handled and decided thousands of labor cases involving illegal dismissals, strikes, unfair labor practices, money claims and other labor disputes.  He later transferred to PNOC, Petrophil and other affiliated companies as HR Manager and Senior Labor Attorney from 1983 to 1986 where he built a reputation as a pro-active management lawyer who worked to prevent labor disputes.

In October 1986, Atty. Jimenez was offered a job by SAN MIGUEL CORPORATION as LABOR RELATIONS MANAGER.  On January 15, 1988, he was promoted as EMPLOYEE RELATIONS DIRECTOR, with the over-all responsibility over strategic employee relations planning in a company with more than 20,000 employees.  His position exposes him to all levels of management and the entire spectrum of the rank-and-file.  As such, he was directly involved in CBA negotiations, CBA administration, management and workers’ development along employee relations directions and issues.

Atty. Jimenez has since been an ardent proponent of preventive labor relations strategies, collaborative rather than adversarial settlement of disputes, and developmental approaches in labor relations issues and problems.  He was a regular lecturer in company and professional associations’ forum on issues relative to labor-management relations.  On 10 May 1998, Atty. Jimenez was promoted to a Corporate Officer position, that of ASSISTANT VICE PRESIDENT for EMPLOYEE RELATIONS.

He was thereafter transferred to the Office of the General Counsel as ASSISTANT VICE PRESIDENT AND MANAGER FOR LABOR LITIGATION.  In 1996, he transferred to the San Miguel Packaging Products Group as ASSISTANT VICE PRESIDENT AND HR AND ADMINISTRATIVE MANAGER of Premium Packaging International.

In April 1997, he joined PEPSI and was chosen to be the top HR man with seven (7) Senior Managers (Directors) reporting to him and fourteen (14) HR Managers all over the Philippines who are functionally responsible to him on all personnel-related decisions from hiring to retiring.

From April 1997 to 31 December 1998, Atty. Jimenez has accomplished the following:

• Was responsible for the solution of TEN (10) NOTICES OF STRIKES and for the solution of all labor disputes involving fourteen (14) bargaining units plus (2) more being organized;

• Was responsible for the signing of a COVENANT OF INDUSTRIAL PEACE, PRODUCTIVITY AND EMPLOYEE WELL-BEING between UOEF (Union de Obreros Estivadores de Filipinas), whereby the union committed a strike-free operations in 10 of the 16 operating units;

• Has formulated, planned and implemented a CBA MASTER PLAN that guided all CBA negotiations in PCPPI and will continue to guide all future negotiations;

• Has spearheaded all the CBA negotiations in PCPPI (4 already done, 10 more coming, 2 potential CBAs);

• Formulated and obtained approval for the NEW PCPPI EMPLOYEES CODE OF DISCIPLINE including a salient feature on SEXUAL HARASSMENT;

• Spearheaded and obtained top management approval of and led the implementation (on-going) of the REORGANIZED STRUCTURE for PCPPI from 6,700 personnel to 5,200 thru the following:

• Spearheaded and obtained top management approval for the NEW COMPENSATION STRUCTURE and VARIABLE COMPENSATION SYSTEM (Fixed plus variable, volume-based);

• Spearheaded and obtained top management approval for the New RAMs (Roles, Accountabilities and Measures) and delineation of responsibilities of all positions in PCPPI;

• Spearheaded the peaceful change of security agencies and the assumption of new one and supervised the formulation of a SECURITY and SAFETY MANUAL;

• Spearheaded the formulation of a CONTRACTUALS HIRING SYSTEM complete with policies and guidelines;

• Personally trained 300 PCPPI managers and supervisors in PCPPI on EMPLOYEE DISCIPLINE and GRIEVANCE HANDLING;

• As Assistant Corporate Secretary, drafted BOARD RESOLUTIONS and Minutes of Meeting for the approval of the Board of Directors; and

• As Corporate Secretary of the Pepsi Foundation, did corporate law for the foundation.

In 2001 to 2002, he accepted additional responsibility over LEGAL, GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS, COMMUNITY RELATIONS, PEPSI FOUNDATION and CORPORATE COMMUNICATION.

On 21 October 2002, Atty. Jimenez was appointed by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo as Undersecretary of the Department of Labor and Employment.

In one year time, Undersecretary Jimenez has spearheaded the liquidation of backlogs of pending cases.  He conceptualized and published a LAYMAN’S GUIDE TO LABOR DISPUTE SETTLEMENT, ADJUDICATION AND ENFORCEMENT PROCEDURES.  He introduced innovations in the labor dispute settlement systems and he empowered the DOLE staff with new skills and a renewed spirit of public service with value-adding quality output and high levels of productivity.

Atty. Jimenez has a reservoir of a wide range of experience in labor relations gathered from his stint with the government and management sectors.  The insights he earlier gained as labor organizer has made him a totally-rounded expert with deeper understanding of the problems besetting labor and management.  And his academic credentials in law, management and labor studies have enhanced his professional competence in the field of labor relations and human resources management.

He is also an active civic leader.  He is a past President of the Muntinlupa Chamber of Commerce and Industry and a past Vice President of the Metro Manila Chambers of Commerce and Industry.  He is involved in the Marriage Encounter Communities, in NAMFREL, in homeowners’ association affairs and in various professional organizations.  He is the founder and Chairman of BAG-ONG LAMPARA, INC., a crusader for good government in his hometown.

He is likewise a recognized academician and educator.  Aside from being a member of the Board of Trustees of  ST. PAUL COLLEGE, Quezon City, ST. PAUL COLLEGE, Pasig City and ST. PAUL COLLEGE, Manila, he is a Professor of Law in UST, UE, FEU and Bar Reviewer in various universities.  He is a consistent Annual Conference Speaker in PMAP (Personnel Management Association of the Philippines) Conventions and was elected as DIRECTOR for 2001 and VICE PRESIDENT in 2002.  He has been conferred by his peers the distinction as FELLOW in PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT and a member of the SOCIETY OF FELLOWS, a distinction given to only the top 5% of all HR practitioners in the country.

Atty. Jimenez is a native of Langin, Ronda, Cebu.  He is the eldest son of MR. LEONOR Q. JIMENEZ and MRS. CONSTANCIA B. JIMENEZ, both educators, and is married to the former EMMA SALAZAR, a Nueva Ecijana nurse, with whom he has only five (5) children: John Paul, Joyce Mae, Josef Rey, Jermiah and Jiza Mari.