DoLE hit for new work guidelines
THE country’s biggest organized labor group on Tuesday blasted the order issued by Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) Secretary Silvestre Bello 3rd pushing for a work-from-home scheme, saying it exposes workers to abuses.
“[ It is] tantamount to conditioning the continued employment of workers on the reduction of their wages and the diminution of their benefits without any justification at all,” the Associated Labor Unions- Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (ALU-TUCP) said of Labor Advisory (LA) 17.
Bello issued LA 17 on Monday, saying it aims to preserve employment as the economy slowly transitions to the “new normal” amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The ALU- TUCP, however, claimed that the order exposes employees to wider abuses in exchange for retaining employment.
“The impact of the policy further harms the working people’s struggle for basic survival and hits workers already agonizing with the very real risk of exposure to the coronavirus disease. Workers are now reacting with deep-seated resentment and anger given the poorly implemented government response to the pandemic lockdown crisis, which left so many vulnerable and empty-handed,” it said.
LA 17 “highly encourages” work- from- home and telecommuting for employees in businesses and industries already allowed to resume operations under the modified enhanced community quarantine or general community quarantine.
It also detailed out a menu of alternative work arrangements that employers may resort to in order to forestall further business reverses while, at the same time protecting jobs, preventing closures and termination of workers.
“This is highly regressive policy-making by DoLE, clearly acting out of line and against both the spirit and letter of the Labor Code. DoLE is cynically using the pandemic crisis to camouflage the castration of legal rights won in picket lines, in the streets and by worker martyrs,” the ALU-TUCP said.
Bello said businesses were also having a hard time and that it was necessary to keep the workers gainfully employed.
In instances when termination of employment becomes unavoidable, the advisory said emoluments for workers removed for cause should follow the provisions of existing laws.
The guidelines also required employers to submit reports to the Labor department field offices on the adoption of any, or all, of the provisions of the advisory.
The DoLE said the prevention and control of the coronavirus in a specific work place, business or industry should be addressed by the employer.
It emphasized that employers, contractors and subcontractors or their principals, should shoulder expenses for the testing of employees; disinfection of facilities; provision of hand sanitizers; procurement of personal protective equipment such as face masks; putting up of signages; the orientation and training of workers including the provision of materials on the coronavirus prevention and control; and other measures necessary to fight and protect their workers and employees.