(REUTERS)
MANILA, Philippines — The Metro Manila Council (MMC) is pushing for the inclusion of employees who are working from home in the COVID-19 vaccination of essential workers or those under the A4 category, MMC chairman and Parañaque City Mayor Edwin Olivarez said Monday.
“Yun po yung pinag-uusapan namin dito lalong lalo na ang ating mga call centers kasi work [from] home sila, na sana i-consider din ng IATF [Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases] na isama po natin yung ating work [from] home,” Olivarez said in an interview over Teleradyo.
(We are discussing this, especially that those who work in call centers under the work-from-home scheme, that they hopefully be included by the IATF in the list.)
“Yun pong interpretation, lahat po ng lumalabas, formal o informal po na worker natin na lumalabas ng bahay, yun po yung ating A4 category. Ang atin pong sinusulong, pati po sana yung work at home kasi lumalabas rin naman po sila, para mabigyan din po ng priority sa vaccination,” Olivarez said.
(The interpretation is that all those who go out, formal or informal worker, are under the A4 category. What we are pushing for is the inclusion of those who work from home, to give them priority in the vaccination since they also go out.)
The IATF has simplified the criteria for the vaccination of the A4 priority group as the following:
- Private sector workers required to be physically present at their designated workplace outside their residences
- Employees in government agencies and instrumentalities, including Government-Owned or -Controlled Corporation (GOCCs) and local government units (LGUs)
- Informal sector workers and self-employed who may be required to work outside their residences, and those working in private households
The vaccination of the A4 priority group is expected to begin this June in Metro Manila, Bulacan, Cavite, Rizal, Laguna, Pampanga, Batangas, Cebu, and Davao.