Employers open to 4-day workweek

Like government workers, employees in the private sector may also enjoy longer weekends, but only under certain conditions.

The Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP) yesterday expressed willingness to adopt the government’s proposed four-day workweek, as long as companies would not be required to grant overtime pay.

"Basically, we welcome the development but the problem is there is a provision in the Labor Code that overtime pay cannot be waived, and this provision must be amended," ECOP president Rene Soriano said.

Anticipating massive opposition to this condition, Soriano urged Congress to make the Labor Code more "attuned with the times and for the government to come out with clear guidelines."

He said many private employers across the country are supportive of the reduced workweek scheme, which is the government’s way of saving on energy costs.

Budget and energy officials said the government can save up to P144 million within two months once the scheme is implemented.

This amount, however, is less than two percent of the total expenditure of the national government for this year on electricity, water, petroleum, oil and lubricants amounting to about P8.5 billion.

In a press briefing yesterday, acting Budget Secretary Mario Relampagos and Energy Secretary Raphael Lotilla said about 70 percent or nearly a million out of the 1.4 million government employees will be affected by the new work schedule for national agencies.

"We will save on this (four-day work week)… for two months, this would be around P114 million," Relampagos said.

He said President Arroyo was to sign an administrative order yesterday to implement the program. He said he would propose that the AO be open-ended to allow the energy-conservation move to continue beyond May if it becomes successful.

According to ECOP, many employers have adopted the so-called "Compressed Work Week (CWW)" pattern since last year, taking the suggestion of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).

However, Soriano explained that under the CWW, the normal workday is increased to more than eight hours without corresponding overtime premium to allow employers to save in the cost of production.

"We adopted the CWW scheme because the guidelines came from DOLE, so we are confident that they would come to our defense if the issue (of overtime pay) would be raised in court," he said.

According to Soriano, the four-day workweek is beneficial to both employers — whose production costs could be lessened — and employees, who would then have more days off from work while at the same time save more on transport and food expenses.

Not only that, he said, a shortened workweek could help the manufacturing sector as well, except export-oriented establishments that need to meet orders from abroad.

The four-day workweek will be implemented next month in national government agencies as part of the energy conservation campaign.

The government has warned of a looming power crisis in the next two years. Mrs. Arroyo has also pushed for energy conservation to lessen the country’s dependence on expensive imported oil and to promote energy independence.

Public workers, however, said the government is not setting its priorities straight.

If it wants to save on costs, the administration should cut down on the perks, pork and privileges of government officials, the Confederation for Unity, Recognition, and Advancement of Government Employees (Courage) said.

Courage president Ferdinand Gaite pointed out a four-day workweek would simply mean a day less for public service.

"The government is either covering up its being inutile in the face of unabated oil price hikes or simply making us employees a convenient showcase just to prove it is doing something about it," Gaite said.

"If the government is bold enough, it should stand up against the whims of the oil cartels and stop the increases and control the prices of oil and other petroleum products," he added.

According to Gaite, whatever amount that is saved on energy consumption and office supplies will pale in comparison with what could be saved if the national budget were properly prioritized.

Courage also criticized the extension of working hours in order to compensate for the fifth day, arguing that this would merely expose government employees, especially women, to unnecessary risks like commuting home late at night from work.

The Department of Energy (DOE) countered Courage’s criticisms, saying a lot of unnecessary consumption and expenditures would be given up during non-working days and this would help shore up savings.

"We can look at it from the standpoint of savings of employees themselves," said Lotilla, who first suggested the program.

"They’re going to save on transport expenses and food expenses which they can actually share with their family," he said.

He also said government employees would receive the same pay despite the reduced working days.

Based on the scheme, affected government employees would be directed to render up to 10 hours of service per day from Monday to Thursday from 7:30 a.m. up to 5:30 p.m.

Exempted from the scheme are frontline agencies such as the Armed Forces, the Philippine National Police, the Coast Guard, Bureau of Customs, some offices of the Bureau of Internal Revenue and other agencies involved in the provision of hospital, health, emergency and calamity services.

Lotilla said other practical measures would also be implemented in government offices to help reduce power, water and fuel consumption. These include less use of air conditioners and elevators in offices.

He admitted, however, that the effects of energy conservation on the economy would be more beneficial if households and the private sector also pitched in.

Relampagos also allayed fears of reduced productivity and efficiency citing the longer working hours of government workers. He said there would be less confusion in the transaction of business between the government, the public and the private firms, compared to when the scheme was first implemented in 2002 since the working days and hours are now specified.

Meanwhile, two members of the Senate said they were against the compressed workweek as it would make the government less productive.

Sen. Sergio Osmeña III said he foresees several problems, including the inability of businesses and individuals to apply for permits for an entire day.

Sen. Mar Roxas, for his part, said it would be more advisable for the government to adopt a four-day workweek for employees alone, and not the offices.

Roxas argued that public offices should remain open five days a week so as not to disrupt services.

As to Malacañang’s prodding of the private sector to adopt the same scheme, the two senators said businesses should be left to their discretion.

In Makati City, the local government is opposing a workweek of only four days, saying the quality of public service would suffer.

Lito Anzures, spokesman for city Mayor Jejomar Binay, nonetheless said they would give it a week or two trial run to determine its implications.

"We exist to serve the public. We will have to see how the public would be affected," Anzures told The STAR in an interview.

He pointed out that local government units have the right to refuse implementing a four-day workweek unless the Department of the Interior and Local Government issues a direct order.

Gov’t workers for the scheme

Another group of government employees, meanwhile, threw its full support behind the four-day workweek scheme.

And to address the problem of possible reduction in the weekly income of government workers who are paid on a daily basis, the Confederation of Government Employees Organizations Inc. (Cogeo) recommended that their present daily wages be multiplied by five, and then divided by four to arrive at their daily wage during the four-day workweek. 

This way, Cogeo president Floriño Ibañez said, daily wage earners in the public sector shall continue to receive the same weekly earnings even as the four-day workweek is enforced.

Cogeo also reiterated its own proposed flexible four-day workweek for government agencies, adopting continuous working hours from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Monday to Friday with no noon breaks to better serve the public. 

This would eliminate overtime work and thus save on energy costs.

Ibañez said that in their proposal, government workers would be divided into two groups, each of which would render service four days a week. One group would render four days of work from Monday to Thursday; the other group would work from Tuesday to Friday.

He said those serving on any given day shall in turn be assigned to two shifts.

The first shift shall take their official snack break from 9:00 to 9:15 a.m., and 3:00 to 3:15 p.m. and official lunch break from 12:00 p.m. to 12:30 p.m. 

The second shift would have their official snack break from 9:15 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. and 3:15 to 3:30 p.m. and official lunch break from 12:30 to 1:00 p.m.

"Thus, the public will be served continuously for ten hours every day from Monday to Friday," Ibañez said.

Government workers will in turn have three-day weekends during which they engage in other income-generating activities. – With Paolo Romero, Katherine Adraneda, Marvin Sy, Michael Punongbayan