Short answer. Yes. Article 50 has the Council establish industry boards specifically to give employers and workers direct participation in shaping manpower development schemes, trades, and skills standards. Their involvement is built into the structure the Code sets up, not left to informal consultation.
What the law says
The Council shall establish industry boards to assist in the establishment of manpower development schemes, trades and skills standards and such other functions as will provide direct participation of employers and workers in the fulfillment of the Council’s objectives, in accordance with guidelines to be established by the Council and in consultation with the National Economic and Development Authority.
Labor Code, Article 50 — Industry Boards. Read the full provision →
Industry boards exist to give employers and workers a seat
Article 50 creates a specific structure for this purpose. It provides that the Council shall establish industry boards to assist in the establishment of manpower development schemes, trades and skills standards and such other functions as will provide direct participation of employers and workers in the fulfillment of the Council’s objectives. The phrase "direct participation" is the key point: employers and workers are not simply consulted from the outside about manpower policy. Industry boards are the mechanism the article sets up specifically to let them take part in shaping it.
What these boards are meant to help produce
The article ties the industry boards to concrete outputs: manpower development schemes and trades and skills standards. These are the practical frameworks that define how training programs are structured and what benchmarks apply to particular trades and skills. Because industry boards are built around participation from employers and workers, the people most familiar with what a trade or skill actually requires in practice have a designated channel for shaping these standards, rather than having them set entirely by government functions with no formal input from the industry itself.
This participation operates within a defined framework
The boards do not operate without oversight or coordination. Article 50 states that they function "in accordance with guidelines to be established by the Council and in consultation with the National Economic and Development Authority." So while employers and workers get direct participation through the industry boards, that participation happens within guidelines the Council sets, developed together with the National Economic and Development Authority, rather than as an entirely independent or self-governing body operating outside any coordinated framework.
How the boards are kept running
Article 50 also addresses how this structure is sustained financially, noting that maintenance and operations are financed through a funding scheme, with rates of fees and manners of collection and disbursement determined by the Council. This detail matters because it shows the participation the article promises is not merely aspirational; the Code anticipates an ongoing funding mechanism to keep the industry boards functioning, rather than leaving their continued operation to chance or to whatever resources happen to be available at a given time.