DOLE Urges Employers to Provide Calamity Incentives

Department of Labor and Employment Secretary Rosalinda Dimapilis-Baldoz urged employers to provide workers who worked during natural calamities with “extra incentives or benefits”.

"To alleviate the plight of employees in times of crisis, employers may provide such extra incentives or benefits to employees who reported for work." Baldoz said employers shall ensure the safety of their workers or employees by providing FREE transportation, food, personal protective equipment and first-aid medicines, as may be necessary.

It appears that the said “calamity benefits or incentives” mentioned by the DOLE Secretary has been implemented by BPO companies way before their labor advisory.

The incentives that were provided by BPO companies during extreme weather conditions were better compared to the said advisory because we were provided with hotel accommodation, shuttle services and proactive notifications just to ensure our safety. Question is, what's the real sentiment of call center employees who worked during extreme weather conditions? The screenshot below would tell us.

Here's what DOLE have to say about pay rules during extreme weather conditions.

She said that if 'un-worked', the rule that applies is 'No pay', unless there is a favorable company policy, practice, or collective bargaining agreement (CBA) granting payment of wages on the said day. "When the employee has accrued leave credits, a worker or employee may be allowed to utilize such leave so that the worker or employee will have compensation on said day," said Baldoz. Workers or employees who reported for work shall receive no additional pay, but only their salary on that day.

That's too bad because what we're expecting of "calamity incentive" is an additional pay; anyway, there are BPO companies that provides premium pay during natural calamities, we have created the list based on our previous article entitled "List of BPO Companies that are Prepared During Unsafe Conditions".

Note: If your company is not listed below it doesn't mean that your employer didn't want to  provide premium pay during natural calamities, it's possible that they are still figuring out how to implement it; better ask your TL/Manager about it.

Here's the list of BPO Companies that provided premium pay who reported for work during natural calamities.

• SPI- premium pay
• RingCentral under Acquire BPO- double pay
• P3ople4u -  double pay
• Altisource - double pay
• Shore Solutions -premium pay
• AtoS Information Technology, Inc - premium pay
• Ingram Micro - 500 pesos additional transpo allowance
• JPMorgan Chase and Co - premium pay
• iQor - double pay
• Accenture - extra pay
• Harte Hanks Philippines - buy back hours

What type of incentive do you want to receive in case you worked during extreme weather conditions? If you would ask me, I would go with  Sodexho GC's since it's tax free.

{source DOLE}