The Labor Department said that it is ready to provide financial assistance to displaced workers during the implementation of the Enhanced Community Quarantine or ECQ in the NCR Plus bubble.
The NCR Plus bubble is composed of Metro Manila, Cavite, Laguna, Bulacan, and Rizal.
“We are prepared anyway to provide cash assistance sa ating displaced workers, especially yung nasa formal employment, and of course yung ating OFWs,” Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello told ABS-CBN.
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Bello said that they will await the list from the companies or establishments which will seek their help.
“For the formal workers, we will rely on employers who will submit to us mga pangalan ng workers nila na na-displace,” he said.
The labor chief said that during the first two months of the year, some 71,000 lost their jobs after being retrenched and the closure of their workplaces.
“Hopefully, with this one-week lockdown, medyo maiwas-iwasan natin yung unemployment result nitong matinding health protocols,” Bello said.
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Formal workers may get a one time cash aid of Php5,000. Overseas Filipino Workers may get Php10,000 while informal workers can apply for an emergency employment program.
The Employers Confederation of the Philippines has urged large member-firms to shoulder the salary of their no-work, no-pay workers for Monday to Wednesday.
“Ang nakikita kong mapeperwisyo, yung mga no-work, no-pay na mga empleyado. Ang nakikita kong mapeperwisyo, yung mga no-work, no-pay na mga empleyado,” ECOP said in another interview. (TDT)
