DOLE vows info privacy for firms seeking help due to COVID-19

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Labor and Employment on Tuesday gave assurance that it will protect any information released by companies seeking assistance from the government due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

According to DOLE Secretary Silvestre Bello III, documents given by employers would be kept confidential, in order for government to reach out to more companies and employees affected by the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ).

Several business institutions and other small and medium enterprises were affected by the work suspension that came with the implementation of the Luzon-wide quarantine.

“We are guaranteeing that no information given by employers in the submission of establishment reports will be disclosed to the public or used against them in the future,” Bello explained.

“This is to encourage more companies to submit their reports so that the government will be able to provide assistance to their workers and employees,” he added.

Aside from these measures, DOLE would no longer require the submission of a company’s payroll as part of their establishment report — meaning that any proof of employee’s salaries would be enough.

DOLE said that there are around 715,000 people working for roughly 30,000 employers who have applied for the COVID-19 Adjustment Measures Program (CAMP), which provides a one-time P5,000 assistance for those in the formal economy.

“We hope to aid all 715,000 workers whose employers numbering close to 30,000 had applied for financial assistance as of today under CAMP. We are ready to process more requests if more establishments will submit their reports,” Bello noted.

Earlier, the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) for the Management of Emerging Infectious Disease has extended the ECQ to until April 30, which means that only frontline service workers would be allowed to go to work until the end of the month.

During the start of the ECQ, workers, especially those who rely on daily wages, complained about the lack of income to support their daily needs.

The move by the IATF was borne from the rising number of COVID-19 cases, which Department of Health officials said is now at 3,764 patients infected with COVID-19, 177 of which have already died while at least 84 have recovered.

Worldwide, over 1.3 million cases have been confirmed, while 74,355 have died from the disease and 272,426 have recovered from it.

DOLE said that their offices would remain open even with the upcoming holidays due to the Holy Week.  Meanwhile, the department said that overseas Filipino workers may start processing documents needed to avail of the P10,000 financial aid for workers stranded due to travel restrictions.

Bello added that they are looking for additional funds to continue funding the livelihood assistance for displaced workers through the Tulong Panghanapbuhay para was Displaced/Disadvantaged Workers-Barangay Ko Bahay Ko (TUPAD #BKBK).

“Also with additional funding, the TUPAD #BKBK shall be able to finance the emergency work of 700,000 in the informal sector.  So far, these two programs already benefitted 440,000 workers to date,” he claimed.

EDV