MANILA – Over two million workers from around 96,600 establishments are now on floating status, an official of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) said on Wednesday.
In a Laging Handa briefing, DOLE Undersecretary Benjo Benavidez said that the affected workers are either under forced leave or their companies have temporarily closed.
“Dahil po doon, sila pong mga manggagawa ay naka-floating status (Because of that, these workers are under floating status,” he said.
Benavidez said the law allows workers to be placed under floating status for six months.
“Kung ito po ay lumampas po sa anim na buwan, kailangan na po silang ibalik ng kanilang mga kumpanya; kung hindi naman po kaya ng mga kumpanya na sila ay maibalik pa, sila po ay kailangan ng i-retrench at bigyan po ng tinatawag po nating separation pay (After six months, these workers need to be rehired; if the company cannot afford to bring them back, workers should be retrenched and give them separation pay),” he said.
The separation pay is equivalent to half-month pay for every year of service.
“For example, if the worker is getting PHP30,000 a month, half of it is PHP15,000, if he worked for 10 years, so 15,000 x 10 that is the amount the retrenched employee will be getting,” Benavidez said.
Though retrenched workers seek intervention at any DOLE office in the country if their employer refuses to give separation pay, Benavidez said filing a case should be the last resort.
“So we suggest po na gamitin po natin, ini-encourage po natin iyong ating mga kababayan, iyong ating mga manggagawa na magkaroon na lang po muna ng conciliation mediation (to let’s use, we encourage you, our workers to have conciliation mediation first),” he added.
He said the DOLE has issued an order, allowing both parties to decide whether to extend the floating status.
“This is based on the voluntary agreement of both parties. If they think extending the floating status will be beneficial to them, we let them decide since we are sure that many companies will be able to bounce back,” he said.
Benavidez, however, said they would check the figure since many companies have been allowed to operate again in November and December as the government ease restrictions to reopen the economy affected by the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic.
“We expect that many workers under floating status have been notified to report back to work. There has been increase in operation capacity of businesses…so we are hoping that those who were in floating status have reported back to their jobs,” he said.