THE Department of Labor and Employment (Dole) 7 yesterday encouraged employers to follow the law by paying holiday benefits to their workers on Sept. 9 and Sept. 12.
Sept. 9 is a special holiday in connection with the birthday of the late Cebuano president Sergio Osmena Sr., while Sept. 12 is a regular holiday to celebrate Eid’l Adha.
Computation
Dole 7 Director Exequiel Sarcauga said that for Sept. 9, employers are obliged to pay an additional 30 percent of the workers’ salary because this is a special holiday. For Sept. 12, employers are mandated to pay 200 percent being a regular holiday.
Sarcauga said they also encouraged workers to report to Dole 7 if their employers don’t comply.
The computation of holiday benefits is the daily salary rate multiplied by 30 percent for Sept. 9 and times 200 percent for Sept. 12, Sarcauga said.
He said Central Visayas has 43,000 establishments and the most common complaint of workers is the non-payment of holiday pay.
If workers are afraid to report their employers for fear of losing their jobs, Sarcauga said this can be detected through the agency’s intensified inspection and assessment of social welfare benefits.
However, Sarcauga this takes a long time, especially since Dole is undermanned.
Two years ago, he said, Dole was only able to inspect 10,000 establishments under the Labor Laws Compliance scheme. If the 4,000 plus that were inspected in 2014 and the other 6,000 in 2015 are, only a total of 20,000 out of 43,000 firms were inspected.
Violations
During inspections, Sarcauga said many companies were found to have violated several labor laws. They were ordered to settle these in 10 days.
If a company has complied, Dole will immediately close the case, he said. Otherwise, it can be charged in court.
Sarcauga also said they discovered some establishments deducting amounts from the workers’ salary for payments of premiums for Social Security System (SSS), Pag-IBIG Fund and Philhealth, which the employers did not remit to the agencies.
“We always furnish to SSS, Pag-IBIG and Philhealth about non-remittance of premiums,” Sarcauga said.
Refusal or failure of an employer to remit the premiums for SSS, Pag-IBIG and Philhealth is a criminal act punishable of both fine and 12-year imprisonment.
