On Mar. 23, President Rodrigo Duterte signed Administrative Order No. 26, which grants a COVID-19 hazard pay for government workers physically reporting to their offices or work stations during the enhanced community quarantine period.
Applicable to regular, contractual and casual positions, the order will enable workers from national government agencies to receive payment not exceeding P500 per day per person for their work as frontliners.
It will also include employees from state universities and colleges as well as government-owned and -controlled corporations in the National Capital Region and other local government units. According to the administrative order, the heads of government agencies can grant the COVID-19 hazard pay without needing approval from the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), as long as it follows certain conditions set.
“The personnel, however, must have been ‘authorized to physically report for work at their respective offices on the prescribed official working hours’ by the head of the agency or office,” senator Christoper “Bong” Go stated.
Computation for the COVID-19 hazard pay is also based on the number of days that the employee physically reported for work during the quarantine period.
Moreover, the order states that those who are “already entitled to hazard pay, hazardous duty pay, hazard allowance, or other similar benefits under existing laws, issuances, rules and regulations, such as public health workers, public social workers, science and technology personnel and military and uniformed personnel shall continue to be entitled to such benefits of the COVID-19 hazard pay, whichever is higher.”
Although the order officially takes effect immediately upon its publication in the Official Gazette or newspaper, the grant of the COVID-19 hazard pay is on retroactive application effective beginning Mar. 17.
Earlier on Mar. 20, DBM and Commission on Audit (COA) ensured contractual government workers under contracts of service and job orders through a joint circular that they will still receive their pay despite the enhanced community quarantine.
According to senator Joel Villanueva, more than 660,000 contractual government employees would benefit from this move, which will also help the government keep workers and their families at their homes during the COVID-19 quarantine.
Malacañang also then expressed their hopes for the private sector to follow their move of guaranteeing pay to contractual workers, and in line with the new AO, “private hospitals and other health facilities are strongly encouraged to grant a similar benefit to their health workers and staff exposed to the perils of the COVID-19” as well.
Header photo courtesy of Inquirer.net
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