Workers decry plan to defer 13th month pay

By Dolly Yasa

 

BACOLOD City – The General Alliance of Workers Assn. (GAWA) expressed strong disappointment on the pronouncement of Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) Sec. Silvestre Bello III on the possible deferment of the 13th month pay to about 2 million workers in businesses that incurred heavy losses or distressed due to the coronavirus disease 2019 or COVID-19 pandemic.

GAWA secretary-general Wennie Sancho said Friday that “It is unfortunate that the workers are the shock absorbers of the economic shock brought by the pandemic. ”

Sancho said the 13th Month Pay Law or Presidential Decree No. 851 mandates that 1/12 of the basic salary of an employee within a calendar year shall be paid to him/her on or before Dec. 24 every year.

Basic salary shall include all remuneration or earnings paid by an employer to an employee for services rendered but may not include COLA, Sancho explained.

He also said that the implementation of the 13th month pay cannot be deferred arbitrarily by DOLE because it is a law, unless the workers would waive their rights to claim.

“If there are business establishments who are distressed and would file petition for exemptions it has to be processed and evaluated by DOLE regional offices and will take effect only if there is an authorization from the Secretary of DOLE,” Sancho said.

He also cited the constitutional mandate that “the State shall afford full protection to labor,” thus the implementation of the 13th month pay is an issue of social justice.

“It is also a social legislation and in case of doubt it should be resolved in favor of the workers who are the primary social economic force. To deny the workers of their 13th month pay would be an added form of injustice,” he added.

Sancho pointed out that the Labor Code mandates that benefits already enjoyed cannot be reduced or diminished to protect the workers.

“The 13th month pay is mandatory and it cannot be deferred or denied. It would be like asking the worker “to walk barefooted on a road scattered with broken glasses,” he said.