'Workers failed to benefit from long holidays'

MANILA, Philippines - Many workers nationwide seemed not to have benefited from the long weekends that marked the Christmas holidays.

The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) reported that half of commercial establishments nationwide were violating the mandated holiday pay for workers.

“We have so many holidays that many employers found it hard to comply with the pay regulations,” Labor Undersecretary Lourdes Trasmonte said.

Citing results of the DOLE’s Project Labor Enforcement and Action Program (Project LEAP), Trasmonte said only 50 percent of the 30,000 inspected establishments granted their workers holiday pay.

Trasmonte, however, expressed confidence that compliance with the holiday pay and other standards would improve when the DOLE inspections resume in mid-January.

“There is some 50 percent compliance rate, although our goal is 65 to 70 percent compliance,” she said.

Under the law, employers are required to pay their employees who work on an officially declared holiday additional percentage based on their regular pay.

DOLE earlier reported that hundreds of workers nationwide have sought assistance concerning nonpayment of the mandated 13th month pay.

But since September 2010, DOLE started implementing an expanded and enhanced LEAP to achieve a higher rate of compliance with general labor standards by companies and establishments.

Based on DOLE data, Trasmonte said employers are more compliant to payment of minimum wage than holiday incentives.

President Aquino has ordered the revocation of the “holiday economics” policy to prevent “disruption of the people’s ability to make a living.”