Employers urged to give 13th month pay on time
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – The Department of Labor and Employment Regional Office III (DOLE-3) on Friday urged employers in Central Luzon to give the 13th month pay due their workers on time.
“Please give your workers their 13th month pay on time,” DOLE-3 Director Zenaida Angara-Campita said, stressing that employers must pay their workers’ 13th month pay not later than December 24.
“It is every employer’s obligation to pay their workers their much-awaited 13th month pay so that they may fully enjoy the spirit of the yuletide season with their families,” Angara-Campita said.
“All employers are required to pay their rankand-file employees their 13th month pay regardless of the nature
of their employment and irrespective of the methods which their wages were paid, provided they worked for at least one month in a year,” she added.
The labor laws and their implementing rules and regulations mandate the payment of the pro-rated 13th month pay, computed as Total Basic Salary X Employment Length ÷ 12 months = 13th Month Pay.
Angara-Campita explained that the 13th month pay is defined as 1/12 of the basic salary of an employee within a calendar year.
“The basic salary includes all remunerations or earnings paid by an employer to an employee for services rendered, but may not include cost-of-living allowances or COLA, profit-sharing payments, cash equivalents of unused vacation and sick leave credits, overtime pay, premium pay, night differential pay, holiday, and all allowances and monetary benefits which are not considered, or integrated as part of the regular or basic salary of the employee,” Angara-Campita said.
Under the Labor Code, she said that employers are required to make a report of compliance to the DOLE regional office not later than January 15 of each year.
“The 13th month pay is a labor standard provision of the law that the DOLE does not compromise as to its payment as employers are duty-bound under labor laws to report their compliance with this worker benefit,” Angara-Campita said.
“Giving our workers what is due to them after a job well-done throughout the working year will result in better labor-management relationships as well as increase in productivity and competitiveness,” she furthered.
Employers failing to pay the 13th month benefit are liable to money claim cases that aggrieved employees may file with any DOLE regional or field office, Angara-Campita said.
— JTD