Employers want employees to go to work? Provide workers transport – Bello

MANILA, Philippines — Employers should shoulder the shuttle services for employees if they have decided to reopen their operations, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) said Saturday.

“Alam naman ng mga employer na kung gusto nila pumasok ka, alam naman nila na wala kang sasakyan o ‘di kaya ‘di ka makarating sa iyong workplace,” DOLE chief Silvestre Bello III said during the Laging Handa online press briefing Saturday.

(Employers know that if they want you to go to work, they know that you don’t have a car or you can’t go to your workplace.)

“So kung gusto nila pumasok ka, kailangan mag-provide sila ng shuttle facility, (So if they want you to go to work, they should provide the shuttle facility),” he added.

But if employers cannot provide shuttle services for its workers, Bello said they should not force employees to go to work.

According to the guidelines of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Disease (IATF-IED), all modes of public transportation are suspended in areas placed under enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) and modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ).

Meanwhile, partial operations of public transportation are allowed under general community quarantine (GCQ) areas provided that a “one-meter distance between passengers” or social distancing would be followed.

Some businesses are also allowed to resume operations under MECQ and GCQ, according to the IATF guidelines.

READ: LIST: What constitutes ECQ, GCQ, and ‘modified’ ECQ areas?

Previously, however, the DOLE chief said his agency cannot compel all companies and businesses to provide transportation to their workers.

KGA