TUCP pushes for paid nCoV quarantine leave for workers

The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) was pushing for a 14-day paid quarantine leave for workers quarantined or infected by the novel coronavirus while performing their jobs.

In a statement on Tuesday, TUCP President and TUCP Party-List Rep. Raymond Mendoza said both government and the private sector should provide this compensation to workers exposed to the virus.

“There is an urgent emerging need for government policy regulation for government and private business to provide a devoted and additional across-the-board cash compensation benefit unique only for all frontline employees who are in the first and secondary exposed directly or indirectly to the risk of infection to the dangerous nCoV virus,” he said.

Under the existing quarantine policy, any person who may be directly or indirectly exposed to animals, humans, and facilities from which there was a risk of exposure to the nCov would be quarantined for 14 days.

Wherever the subject was quarantined, whether at a facility or at home, he or she must report to health officials twice a day for two weeks.

Mendoza thus called on the Civil Service Commission (CSC) and the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to create this paid quarantine leave policy for civil servants and private business employees.

According to the party-list rep, the need for the policy was evident in the cases of airline, and hotel and restaurant workers in Cebu and Dumaguete City who were quarantined, allegedly without pay, after being exposed to a suspected nCoV-stricken tourist.

“There were reports that the cost of antibiotic medicines, face masks, and hospital and professional fees were charged to the employees quarantined,” Mendoza said.

“These workers are in the forefront, our first line of defense against the hazardous nCov virus and they must be compensated more on top of what they are getting on ordinary working days for sacrificing their life and limb in order to save the rest of the community from the deadly outbreak,” he added.

Mendoza also reminded both employees and employers that under Section 6 of the Republic Act 11058 of 2018, workers in the private sector had the right to refuse unsafe work.

Based on DOLE’s Labor Advisory, employees in private sectors who may get sick due to nCoV exposure may offset absences using sick and vacation leaves given by the company.

Mendoza, however, argued these were not enough to cover the 14-day quarantine period. — Joviland Rita/DVM, GMA News