Private sector employers urged to give 13th month pay, bonus ahead of Christmas

Quezon City Representative Precious Hipolito Castelo on Tuesday called on private sector employers to release the 13th month pay or Christmas bonus of their employees before December 25 as mandated by law.

“Releasing the bonus or 13th-month pay early will surely ease the financial burden employees and our people have to face every day because of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Castelo said in a statement to reporters.

Due to the lingering health crisis, Castelo said many Filipino families resort to borrowing money to make ends meet.

“Workers could avoid borrowing more money if they get their year-end bonus way ahead of schedule. They could also plan for their expenses for the Christmas season and do shopping early so they would not add to the Christmas rush and traffic,” she said.

At the same time, releasing the 13th-month pay early would be a "gesture of compassion" on the part of employers, Castelo said.

"If they do that, they would also be following the example of the government, the country’s biggest employer, which releases the 14th-month pay of its more than one million personnel on November 15,” she said.

Presidential Decree 851 mandates employers from the private sector to pay their rank-and-file employees a 13th month pay not later than December 24 every year.

Under PD 851, the 13th month pay should be equivalent to 1/12 of an employee's basic annual salary.

Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III earlier said the deferment of giving 13th month pay can be agreed upon by the employers and their employees through a dialogue.

“Depende 'yan sa pag-uusap ng management at labor group. Kung papayag ang mga empleyado... depende ‘yan sa usapan nila,” he said.

“But the DOLE is very clear na kailangan bayaran sila on or before December 25,” he added. 

However, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) on Friday officially declared that employers cannot defer or be exempted from giving the 13th month pay benefit of their employees.

In its Labor Advisory No. 28 signed by Bello, the DOLE said that “no request or application for exemption from payment of 13th month pay, or for deferment of the payment thereof shall be accepted and allowed.”

As this developed, the Bankers Association of the Philippines said Philippine banks are open to offering borrowing programs to local businesses for them to be able to release the mandated 13th-month pay to employees. —Erwin Colcol/KG, GMA News