Villanueva lauds Senate ratification of bicam report on ‘work-from-home’ bill

Senator Joel Villanueva. (Photo from his Facebook page)

Senator Joel Villanueva on Wednesday lauded the Senate’s ratification of the bicameral conference committee report on the proposed law that would allow employees to opt for “telecommuting” or working from home.

The bicam report emphasizes that telecommuting — a work arrangement that allows an employee in the private sector to work from an alternative workplace with the use of telecommunication and/or computer technologies — will remain as employers’ prerogative based on a mutual agreement.

“While a telecommuting program is voluntary or optional, it should not be less than the minimum labor standards set by law including that for health and safety of workers, schedule and workloads, work hours and social security,” Villanueva, chairman of the Senate committee on labor and employment, said in a statement.

The senator said passage of the proposed measure is imperative in order to improve work environment and employees productivity in private companies.

“That’s why we are pushing for the approval of this measure so that we can have a stable and consistent legal framework that can provide an enabling environment to encourage participation and enforce compliance among enterprises, big or small,” the senator added.

Villanueva however stressed that the telecommuting program must follow the labor standards despite being a voluntary option for workers.

Under the bill, the Department of Labor and Employment is mandated to create guidelines to ensure fair treatment among workers such as rate of pay; right to rest periods; equal workload and performance; and appropriate training, among others. /kga

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