Recall order removing extra pay for working in 3 holidays, govt told
MALACAÑANG was asked to reconsider a Palace order effectively slashing workers’ year-end take-home pay in adjusting the traditional Christmas-new Year holiday schedule.
Senator Risa Hontiveros said on Monday the Palace directive reclassifying November 2, December 24 and 31 as “special working holidays,” would effectively “cut the take-home pay of thousands of workers.”
President Duterte on Friday had issued Proclamation 1107, which revised the list of holidays for 2021
Under the proclamation, the classification of All Soul’s Day (Nov. 2), Christmas Eve (Dec. 24), and Last Day of the Year (Dec. 31) was changed from a special nonworking holiday to special working holiday. This meant workers who render duty on these days will not get any additional compensation.
Hontiveros suggested that Malacañang “withdraw and reverse” Proclamation No. 1107.
She lamented that the Palace order was “nothing short of disastrous for workers already dealing with a pandemic and an economic crisis.”
Even as she affirmed the Duterte government’s need to increase economic productivity, Hontiveros bemoaned that demoting special Filipino holidays to special working holidays will “only burden and demoralize Filipino workers,” many of whom are already underpaid and struggling with high prices of goods.
“This is rubbing salt on the people’s wounds,” the senator rued, asking aloud in Filipino, “why deprive workers of a chance to earn extra—now that life is so hard?”
She pointed out that Christmas Eve, New Year’s Eve, along with All Souls’ Day are some of the most important holidays for Filipino families throughout the year. “What is the motivation to suddenly make them working holidays? There are other special non-working holidays that can be touched, but Christmas Eve at New Year’s Eve? It should be understood that these dates are non-negotiable,” she stressed.
The senator said that due to the proclamation, people who will go to work during All Soul’s Day, Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve this year will no longer be entitled to the additional holiday pay of 30 percent of their daily basic wage, among other amenities, granted to workers during special nonworking holidays.
Hontiveros reminded the government that most of those at work during holidays are frontliners and essential staff, “like medical workers, and our workers in hotels, restaurants, groceries, and malls many of whom earn minimum wage. It’s bad enough they can’t be with their families on these special days, and then we still have to remove their hoped-for extra compensation?” she asked.
The lower pay during those holidays might even be a disincentive and discourage workers from reporting for duty, thus lowering economic productivity instead of increasing it.