DOLE requires 5-minute standing break for workers

Employees who spend long hours sitting while performing their job should be given a five-minute standing break every two hours according to the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).

DOLE Secretary Silvestre Bello III issued Department Order 184, which requires occupational safety and health standards in all workplaces to address health risks and ensure safe working conditions in offices.

The DO states that sedentary work or prolonged sitting while working poses threats to workers as it can lead to high blood pressure, heart disease, anxiety, musculoskeletal disorders, obesity, and diabetes among others.

Bello's order covers workers involved in computer, administrative, and clerical works; those working in highly mechanized establishments; those working in the field of transportation, toll booths, information technology, and business process management; and all other processes and industries where sedentary work is observed.

The order, which was issued on October 18, shall be effective 15 days after its publication in newspapers.

"We are looking at the new DO as a positive step of government to minimize job-related stresses, diseases, sicknesses and deaths caused on workers due to stationary or sedentary nature of their work," said the Associated Labor Unions-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines in a statement.

ALU-TUCP spokesman Alan Tanjusay said they expect DOLE to roll out and inform all employers about the new workplace rule for the wellness of their employees, especially at these very stressful times of working.

"Dapat din maglabas ang DOLE ng mga promotional, sample videos teaching and guiding employees and employers ng mga simpleng exercises na applicable sa iba't ibang uri ng workplace," he said. (DOLE should release sample videos of simple exercises for employees and employers to follow.)

The union also hopes there would be no additional cost and reduction of benefits of employees once the DO is enforced.

"Tingnan sana ito ng mga employers bilang isang polisiya upang maging malusog at produktibo ang kanilang mga manggagawa at hindi bilang karagdagang gastos at hindi balakid sa production," Tanjusay added. (The employers should look at this as a policy that will make their workers more productive and not as additional expense.)