DOLE to provide emergency employment to PLDT workers

“This is an emergency employment program while they are advocating about their rights since they are unemployed for the moment, we will provide them emergency employment for one month,” Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said. (File photo: PNA)

MANILA — The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) on Monday said it will provide emergency employment assistance for 30 days to the affected workers of the Philippine Long Distance Telephone (PLDT) Company.

In an interview, Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III noted that they have received some 3,000 applicants, who would like to avail of the program – wherein they will be receiving minimum wage.

“This is an emergency employment program while they are advocating about their rights since they are unemployed for the moment, we will provide them emergency employment for one month,” he said.

The Labor and Employment chief noted that the workers will be employed in public schools.

“They will be working in public schools. I think, they will maintain cleanliness of the schools since we cannot ask them to work in farms,” he added.

Bello, meanwhile, said they have yet to determine whether they will file a motion for reconsideration on the decision of the Court of Appeals (CA), which granted PLDT’s petition for an injunction against the DOLE order for regularization of the 7,344 workers it hired from third party contractors.

In its decision dated July 31, the appellate court halted the said order.

The DOLE chief said the Office of the Solicitor General will handle the case for them.