The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) wants a gradual return to work of employees, with only 30 percent reporting back to work after the enhanced community quarantine in Luzon is lifted.
During the Management Association of the Philippines’ webinar yesterday, Labor Undersecretary Ana Dione said the DOLE does not expect all employees to immediately be allowed to work after quarantine ends on April 30.
“We are thinking it should not be an abrupt report to work for all the workers. We are thinking of maybe gradual, about 30 percent, and then after one month, 50 percent and then 75 percent,” Dione said.
She said a gradual approach is needed as companies need to make operational adjustments.
“Companies will also have to adjust, taking into consideration occupational safety and health of the workers and also social distancing,” she said.
Luzon was placed on enhanced community quarantine to limit the movement of people and slow the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
With Luzon on lockdown, the government only allowed some establishments to continue operations.
Establishments allowed to operate during the quarantine period are manufacturers of food, essential products, medicines and medical products; retail establishments; logistics service providers; hospitals and medical clinics; food preparation and water refilling stations; delivery services; banks and capital markets; power, energy, water, information technology and telecommunications, waste disposal services; as well as exporters and business process outsourcing firms.
While these establishments could continue operations during the lockdown, they are only allowed to have a skeleton workforce.
Only that part of the supply chain of food and essential products, as well as medicine and medical products, have been allowed by the Department of Trade and Industry to operate with 50 percent workforce or higher to ensure sufficient supply.
Apart from pushing for a gradual return to work, Dione said DOLE is also planning to come up with programs for those to be laid off.
“We’re seeing that there will be a spike in unemployment rate, so we want to be in the localities, in the barangay level for that side,” she said.
The DOLE is providing assistance to workers whose incomes were affected by the enhanced community quarantine under the COVID-19 Adjustment Measures Program (CAMP).
Last April 15, DOLE closed the online application for CAMP, citing the available fund worth P1.6 billion is close to being depleted.
Since the implementation of CAMP from March 23, DOLE has provided one-time P5,000 assistance to 236,412 workers from 10,663 establishments, with total cash disbursement amounting to P1.2 billion.
DOLE will be giving cash assistance to 85,563 more workers in the coming days.
Workers’ dismay
The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) claimed yesterday that workers in the formal sector got dismayed and confused over the cancelation of CAMP by DOLE.
In a statement, TUCP president Raymond Mendoza noted that a majority of such workers have not received CAMP assistance so they felt betrayed when the program was suddenly stopped.
“Because of this cash assistance stoppage, jobless ordinary workers and their families are confused and feel betrayed right now. Millions of locked down workers, particularly those who have yet to receive the cash grant, are feeling betrayed by the stoppage of their only lifeline cash assistance,” he added.
Mendoza said displaced workers felt they were “pushed into lockdown, deprived of their jobs, kept in the dark corner and left out amid hunger, poverty and fear.”
Some 1.4 million establishments and enterprises have reported to DOLE that they were affected by the enhanced community quarantine.
Mendoza said the Inter-Agency Task Force must “immediately, widely and clearly explain the matter to the ordinary workers and avoid confusion.”
OFWs to bounce back
As the government strikes a balance between public safety and the economy, authorities remain optimistic that displaced overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) would be able to bounce back after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Secretary to the Cabinet Karlo Nograles made the statement even as economists expect that remittances from OFWs are likely to take a hit this year with the pandemic affecting the economies of almost all countries where OFWs are based.
“Well, it’s a balancing (act). Because number one, maybe, because of this crisis what will happen and you will see that the OFWs will still be there,” he said.
New opportunities will rise for Filipino skilled workers despite the downside of losing jobs abroad amid COVID-19 pandemic, Nograles said when asked about how the government is looking at unemployment and loss of remittances.
“Necessarily, there is a change in the landscape. There will be industries that will rise; there will be industries that fall. Whatever it is, the skill of the overseas Filipino will still be in demand. But now, we have to contend with balancing it that there will be no brain drain here,” Nograles said.
“We also need Filipinos in the forefront of this battle,” he added.
Nograles said the health sector will continue to be one of the major sources of opportunities for Filipinos. He also counted information technology as among the areas growing after the crisis.- With Sheila Crisostomo, Christina Mendez
https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2020/04/18/2008098/dole-wants-30-workers-back-after-quarantine
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