Infection risk prompts big push to set up worker salary accounts

THE Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) said employers need to minimize physical contact when paying their workers by setting up accounts they can deposit wages to.

In Labor Advisory No. 26 dated Aug. 3, the DoLE said it aims to “encourage and enable all private establishments” to use salary accounts for wages and other benefits, to minimize the possibility of spreading the coronavirus.

It said employers must also help their workers gain access to “formal financial services for the promotion of their welfare, to reduce costs and risks of physical cash disbursement, and to promote digital payments as a safer alternative to physical exchange of bills and coins, thereby reducing physical contact and minimizing transmission or spread of…COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019).”

Employers were also encouraged to help unbanked workers gain access to electronic money services. Employees with bank accounts should also be given the option to receive their pay via PESONet, the central bank’s electronic payments network.

Management should collect no additional charges for directly depositing salaries, and were encouraged to tell their workers about the advantages of having formal accounts, it said.

The DoLE also recommended that companies seek the assistance of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Center for Learning and Inclusion Advocacy for materials on financial literacy. —