Employers back fewer holidays

The Employers Confederation of the Philippines (Ecop) on Monday said it will support the move to reduce the number of annual holidays in the country and to schedule them close to weekends, agreeing with Trade Secretary Alfred Pascual that such an adjustment will lessen disruptions for both businesses and workers.

“Our position is that we have too many holidays in the Philippines compared to the others,” Ecop president Sergio Ortiz-Luis Jr. said in an interview with the Inquirer.

“As for holiday economics, I think that’s okay as long as we are not adding extra days. Look at what happened during the [observance of] Eid al-Fitr.

It should have been on a Saturday but they made Friday a holiday, too,” he added.

The ECOP official said having too many holidays increases the labor costs for businesses in the country, noting that this burdens the majority since most are small businesses. INQ