DOLE studying compressed workweek policy

Workers nationwide may soon be required to work only five days a week or even less as part of government efforts to cushion the impact of the global economic crisis.

Ciriaco Lagunzad, executive director of the National Wages and Productivity Commission (NWPC), said the government is looking into the possibility of implementing a compressed workweek (CWW) policy.

“The implementation of a compressed workweek policy is now under study by the Department of Labor and Employment and other concerned agencies,” Lagunzad said in an interview.

“It could be a shorter workweek like three days a week just to accommodate production or it could be sharing or shifting of jobs among workers. The idea here is really to preserve jobs at this time of crisis,” Lagunzad said.

Lagunzad said members of the Tripartite Industrial Peace Council (TIPC), composed of representatives from the DOLE, labor and business sectors, met yesterday to discuss the proposed measure.

NWPC deputy executive director Esther Guirao told The STAR that various DOLE agencies are now meeting to discuss measures to enable workers to deal with the economic crisis.

DOLE sources said members of various foreign business groups have been pushing for the implementation of flexible working arrangements.

In 2004, DOLE came out with an advisory encouraging employers and workers to adopt CWW schemes to promote business competitiveness while reducing operational costs.

Under the DOLE’s proposed CWW scheme, the normal workday will go beyond eight hours without the corresponding overtime premium. The total hours of work, however, shall not exceed 12 hours a day or 48 hours a week, or the employer is obliged to pay the worker the overtime premium in excess of said work hours.

Work may be performed beyond eight hours a day provided the worker is compensated for the overtime work.

The DOLE’s advisory stressed that the proposed CWW scheme is on a voluntary basis.

As this developed, the country’s largest labor group expressed concern over the possibility that employers may use the economic crisis as a ploy to violate established labor standards, including the regulation on working hours.

Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) spokesman Alex Aguilar said they have received reports that an airline company is now proposing to reduce the working hours of their workers from 270 days a year to only 220 days due to economic turmoil.

Meantime, lowly paid workers are now feeling the major brunt of the financial crisis.

More and more companies are not giving appropriate wages and other financial benefits apparently due to the financial crisis, the DOLE reported yesterday.

Data from the DOLE-Bureau of Working Conditions (BWC) showed an increasing number of commercial establishments not complying with the mandated minimum wage rates in their respective regions.

Records show that a total of 18,678 commercial establishments nationwide underwent inspection and of the number, 80.33 percent complied with the mandated minimum wage rates.