A four-day workweek for government workers and flexi-work arrangements are among the options being considered by the government to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 as well as prevent job losses as the private sector attempts to cope with the impact of the outbreak on businesses.
In an interview on Tuesday, Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles said that “as far as the Civil Service is concerned, they are discussing the adoption of a four-day workweek as one of the measures that the Civil Service can do in terms of government workers.”
“Because it’s temporary we don’t need to retrench or fire workers.”
Classes in the National Capital Region were ordered suspended by President Rodrigo Duterte from March 10 to 14 as part of efforts to prevent the transmission of COVID-19 in Metro Manila after the number of confirmed cases in the country rose to 24 Monday evening.
Nograles, a member of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Disease, said the suspension of classes in the NCR could be extended or lifted based on developments this week.
The Palace official added that as far as employees in the private sector are concerned, “the Department of Labor and Employment just recently issued a labor advisory that regulates flexi-work arrangements.”
The point of the advisory, explained Nograles, is “to discourage businesses from laying off and retrenching workers and adopting a flexi-work arrangement instead.”
This, said Nograles, particularly applies to the tourism industry, which has been hit hard by the outbreak.
The lawyer and former Davao representative also stressed that the government has been urging the private sector to avoid terminating workers given the temporary nature of the COVID-19 outbreak.
“At one point we will be able to control this. So what’s happening now in the tourism and travel industry would be considered temporary; because it’s temporary we don’t need to retrench or fire workers.”