2 senators seek to expand telecommuting law as ‘WFH’ becomes norm in pandemic

CONGRESS was asked to pass a law expanding the coverage of the telecommuting law and providing incentives for telecommuting employees under the so-called work-from-home (WFH) arrangements. In filing Senate Bill 1684, coauthors Senators Francis Tolentino and Ronald dela Rosa noted Monday the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) has infected 12 million individuals worldwide and claimed the lives of 500,000 individuals.

“It [Covid] single-handedly brought down the world’s economy in a matter of months,” the two senators said in the bill’s explanatory note, adding that in the Philippines, “the Covid-19 cases traversed the 50,000 mark.”

They recalled Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III saying that the Duterte administration expects the debt-to-gdp ratio to rise to 50 percent from 39 percent last year as it increased borrowings to mitigate the economic impact of the pandemic.

Their explanatory note also recalled “government think tanks” projecting that the Philippine economy may lose up to P2.5 trillion.

“During the first five weeks of the Luzon-wide ECQ [enhanced community quarantine] alone, from March 17, 2020 to April 21, 2020, over 2 million employees were displaced wherein about 70 percent of this were affected by temporary business closures and 30 percent of employees were subject to alternative work arrangements such as reduced working days and hours, forced leave and work-from-home,” the two senators added.

They cited Republic Act 11165, also called the Telecommuting Law that President Duterte signed last December 20, 2018 to “entice the private sector to explore telecommuting programs for its employees, adding that this law became more relevant with the shroud of the Covid-19 pandemic still hovering over our nation.”