INSTEAD of foregoing the mandated 13th month pay this year because of the coronavirus pandemic, Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III on Thursday, October 8, 2020, urged employers to just defer its release.
"Maybe we can just defer it. If you can't give it now, maybe next year or next month, just not now," Bello said in an online forum.
"To me, that might be the more acceptable formula to address the issue of payment of 13th month pay," he added.
Bello said he believes that even the workers will agree to such an arrangement.
Only "distressed" companies would be exempted from paying this benefit, but they would need to seek approval from the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), he said.
Bello said he will issue an advisory to define a distressed company.
"We may have to define exactly the meaning of distressed. Are these the small and medium-size enterprises? We will study this subject to tripartite consultation," Bello said in an online forum.
The DOLE chief was reacting to a statement by the Employers Confederation of the Philippines (Ecop) that some two million workers may be unable to get their 13th month pay this December.
Ecop president Sergio Ortiz-Luis cited the massive losses suffered by businesses as the pandemic halted their operations and pushed economies worldwide into a deep recession.
Under Presidential Decree No. 851, employers are required to grant 13th month pay to all its rank and file employees not later than December 24 every year.
The 13th month pay is equivalent to one-twelfth of an employee's annual basic salary.
In the same forum, Bello also said he will issue an advisory Friday, October 9, extending the period within which companies may rehire temporarily displaced employees.
Under the law, employers are required to rehire employees who were temporarily displaced by the pandemic.
Bello said employers have requested for an extension, saying they have not recovered from their losses.
The DOLE chief said he will allow the extension in a bid to protect and preserve jobs. (HDT/VoxPop Philippines)