Sen. Joel Villanueva (Voltaire F. Domingo/Senate PRIB)
MANILA, Philippines — Senator Joel Villanueva on Thursday called on the government to “temporarily withdraw its ultimatum” to business process outsourcing (BPO) companies amid soaring fuel prices.
With rising transport costs, Villanueva, chairman of the Senate labor committee, said the government should heed the call of BPO firms to extend work-from-home arrangements beyond the March 31 deadline.
He questioned the move to revise working arrangements, saying industry earnings and their contribution to the economy have not been impacted by remote work.
“[W]hy revise a working arrangement that yields the same productivity?” asked Villanueva, who sponsored and authored the Telecommuting Act in the Senate during the 17th Congress.
The measure recognizes the work-from-home setup or telecommuting as an alternative work arrangement under the country’s labor laws.
Earlier, the Fiscal Incentives Review Board (FIRB) set a deadline for BPO employees to physically return to office as a condition for information technology and business process management firms in freeports and economic zones to continue enjoying tax perks and fiscal incentives.
“I believe that the rise in gas prices is exacerbated by the conflict in Ukraine, which makes the appeal to extend the deadline a very reasonable one,” Villanueva said in a statement.
He added that with BPO workers forced to work on-site, this would mean that money that was supposed to go for food expenses “will now be spent at the gas pump.”
“If government is scrambling to ‘soften the pain’ of surging oil prices for many sectors like drivers and farmers, then 1.3 million BPO workers should be entitled to the same mitigation,” Villanueva added.
Furthermore, the senator pointed out that BPO workers “are not asking for billions of pesos in fuel subsidy” in spite of “plowing” P1.5 trillion into the economy yearly.
“They just want to be allowed to continue working from home. It is a mitigation measure that will not cost the government anything,” he said.
He also disagreed that a return-to-work for call center employees will provide local micro, small, and medium enterprises with a needed economic jolt.
“Bakit hindi ba nila ginagastos nang buo ang sweldo nila kahit nasa bahay sila nagtratrabaho? Pareho lang nagagamit ang sweldo nasa opisina man o nasa bahay,” Villanueva said.
“The location of their workstation has no bearing on their spending habits or the level of their savings,” he added.
Even by working from home, “BPO workers are keeping community enterprises alive,” the senator also said.
He backed industry calls to set back the deadline until the lifting of the state of calamity “to allow for seamless transition, for the sake of our workers.”
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