Employers have till Jan. 15 to report 13th month pay

Employers have 15 days left to report to the Department of Labor and Employment (Dole) if they were able to give their workers the government-mandated 13th month pay.

Under the law, workers in the private sector should have received their 13th month pay on Christmas Eve.

From that time, employers are given until Jan. 15, 2019, to file a compliance report to the respective Dole regional offices.

The report includes the name and address of the establishment, the principal product or business, total employment, the total number of workers who benefited, the amount granted per employee and the total amount of benefits granted, among others.

According to the Dole, the 13th month pay received by an employee should not be less than one-twelfth of the total basic salary he earned within the calendar year.

The basic salary includes all remunerations or earnings paid to an employee for services rendered, but may not include cost-of-living allowances, profit-sharing payments, cash equivalents of unused vacation and sick leave credits, overtime pay, premium pay, night shift differential pay and holiday pay.

All allowances and monetary benefits not considered, or integrated as part of the regular or basic salary of the employee, also may not be included in the computation of the 13th month pay.

Regardless of the nature of their employment, workers are entitled to receive the 13th month pay, provided that they have worked for at least a month during the year.

Erring employers may be charged at the Dole or at the National Labor Relations Commission for nonpayment, which will be treated as a money claim case.