Bill seeks insurance for jobless
A House bill has sought to provide 80 percent of the salary of displaced workers for up to three months after losing their jobs.
Under House Bill 490, economist-lawmaker Marikina 2nd District Rep. Stella Quimbo said unemployment insurance would assist laid-off workers while looking for a new job.
The bill also mandated that employees, employers, and the government would be required to contribute to the insurance fund for displaced workers and that a Philippine Job Insurance Corporation, which would function similarly to the state-run health insurer PhilHealth, will be established to oversee the management of the funds.
“So in this measure, the requirement would be contribution from employees but with counterpart from an employer, including government,” Quimbo, in a radio interview, said.
Equal contributions
Although the mandated insurance would require an additional payment and deduction from an employee’s salary, the lawmaker highlighted that it provided an essential social safety net for workers.
“In my initial computation, for minimum wage earners with a take home pay of about P11,000, contribution is about P44 month. That will be P44 from you. P44 from your employer, and then another from P44 from government,” Quimbo explained.
“And for this amount, you can rest easy at night — because it’s like you’re buying that, right? You won’t worry about what will happen if your company shuts down tomorrow. Because that’s what happened for a lot of people this pandemic,” she added.
Quimbo, on the other hand, stated that only laid-off employees are eligible for the insurance. She stressed that the proposed bill’s purpose was similar to PhilHealth.
“So it’s the same here. It’s like betting that you’ll lose your job. The P44 per month is your bet,” she said.