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Some firms refuse to submit requirements for workers’ financial assistance program — Bello


Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III on Wednesday appealed to businesses to submit their staff’s payroll to the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) as some establishments refuse to avail of the P5,000 financial assistance program for their affected employees.

“[I]t has come to our attention that there are not a few establishments that refuse to submit their report along with the payroll to the detriment of their workers,” Bello said in a statement.

“I therefore appeal again to companies that, for the sake of your employees and workers, submit your reports so that we may be able to extend them their most needed assistance under the COVID 19 Adjustment Measures Program (CAMP),” he said.

The Labor chief earlier encouraged workers to directly submit to the DOLE a list of their fellow affected co-employees to avail of the agency’s one-time cash assistance program

The program covers workers in private establishments affected by the COVID-19 from its onset in January until the lifting of stringent social distancing measures on April 14, unless extended, that implemented flexible work arrangements or temporary closures.

The DOLE requires employers or establishments to submit report on the COVID-19‘s impact on their businesses and company payroll for the month prior to the implementation of flexible work arrangement or temporary closure.

“As of March 31, our field monitoring already recorded more than 630,000 workers displaced either by reason of temporary closure or flexible work arrangements as reported by 15,213 establishments,” Bello said.

“Of these figures,169,232 belong to the informal sector,” he said.

The DOLE, the Labor chief said, has so far distributed P160 million and “we are accelerating the release of assistance to all those affected.”

“To emphasize, the cash aid available is different from the allocation of between P5,000 to P8,000 in subsidy that the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and other agencies are providing under the Bayanihan to Heal As One law,” he said.

“While the new law provides a cash and non-cash Emergency Subsidy Program (ESP) for two months based on the prevailing regional wage rates, DOLE’s CAMP is a one-time quarantine assistance,” he added.

The ESP targets families with at least one member belonging to vulnerable and disadvantaged sectors such as Senior Citizens, Persons with Disability, Pregnant and Lactating Women, Solo Parents, Overseas Filipinos in Distress, Indigent Indigenous Peoples, Underprivileged Sector and Homeless Citizens, and Informal Economy Workers, according to the Cabinet official.

Among these programs are DSWD’s food and non-food items, cash assistance to individuals in crisis, and livelihood assistance grants; Department of Agriculture’s cash assistance to rice farmers; and other programs of Department of Trade and Industry.

“Pursuant to this subsidy program, DOLE also administers the TUPAD #BKBK which provides the equivalent of daily minimum wage for 10 days of work for the informal sector workers,” Bello said.

“The Department of Labor and Employment is bent on providing assistance to as many of our workers in the formal economy sector inasmuch as we give to informal sector workers,” he said. — RSJ, GMA News

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