House Bill No. 10559, “An Act Strengthening Occupational Safety and Health Standards by Integrating Climate-Adaptive Measures and Penalizing Gross Violations Thereof,” was approved by the House of Representatives on third and final reading last September 2, 2026. 

The proposed bill, pushed by Gabriela Women’s Party Rep. Sarah Elago, would require workplaces to adopt climate-adaptive OSH measures, such as protections against heat stress and extreme weather, and would impose stiffer fines and imprisonment for gross violations that result in worker injury or death. 

“We stand firm that the number of occupational injuries, accidents, and deaths presented today highlights the need, the necessity, to impose higher fines and penalty of imprisonment to violators of OSH standards and to institutionalize stronger protection and accountability mechanisms in our current OSH Law. It is about time that we treat gross violations of OSH standards which often result in injuries and deaths as criminal offenses. Filipino workers deserve safe working conditions,” Elago stated, citing government and IOHSAD’s documentation on work-related incidents.

As of this writing, no counterpart bill has been filed in the Senate. 

The Institute for Occupational Health and Safety Development (IOHSAD), which has worked closely with Gabriela Women’s Party, workers’ organizations and unions for many years, and together have fought for what is now the historic OSH Law, welcomes this development and vows alongside workers to continue working towards a counterpart bill filed and carried forward in the Senate.