Dumaguete exec denies order against non-wearing of uniforms

DUMAGUETE CITY, Philippines  – City Administrator William Ablong on Thursday clarified there was no existing memorandum that penalizes employees of the city government, such as sending them home on a work day, for not wearing the prescribed uniform.

Ablong said a memorandum, signed by Mayor Manuel Sagarbarria last year, explicitly provides that city employees wear the prescribed uniform daily, from Monday to Friday, according to the colors and sets assigned for each day.

Sending an employee home or marking him or her absent for non-compliance of the rules on prescribed uniform however has never been a practice by the city government, Ablong said.

He said he made the clarifications due to reports from some employees claiming that their superiors have allegedly sent them home or warned to mark them absent for being not in uniform.

While Ablong admits that this is not an administration policy, some department heads or superiors could be imposing such policy at their own level as a way of “disciplining” employees directly under them. He said he has not, however, received any official report or complaint of such.

Ablong also disclosed that recently, employees of the city government were given a P5,000 clothing allowance wherein they now have the option to pick the tailor or dressmaker of their choice, or the shop that sells sports shirts embroidered with the city government logo for those doing field work.

“As far as the Office of the City Administrator is concerned, we do not have that order to penalize the employees” for failing to wear proper uniforms, said Ablong.

As a solution to city government workers not wearing the prescribed uniform, Ablong said they can be reprimanded and marked as “uncooperative” or via a written order.