Mayen Jaymalin | September 19, 2022
Under the revised implementing rules and regulations, employees who are working from home shall receive pay, including overtime, night shift differential and other similar monetary benefits not lower than those provided for in applicable laws.
Employees under a work-from-home (WFH) arrangement can now enjoy overtime pay as well as night shift differential, according to the Department of Labor and Employment.
Labor Secretary Bienvenido Laguesma announced on Sunday, Sept. 18, that the department has revised the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) of the Telecommuting Law.
“These revised rules clarify and adequately address issues and concerns of the telecommuting sector,” Laguesma said in a statement.
While emphasizing the voluntary nature of the WFH arrangement, Laguesma urged both employers and workers to adopt telecommuting programs and help sustain the country’s economic recovery.
Under the revised IRR, workers shall receive pay, including overtime, night shift differential and other similar monetary benefits not lower than those provided for in applicable laws and authorized collective bargaining agreements.
Workers also have the right to rest days, regular holidays and special non-working days. They shall also have the same workload and performance standard as those of comparable workers at the employer’s premises.
Like those reporting on work sites, workers under the WFH scheme shall have access to training without additional cost and shall continue to have collective rights.
Laguesma said the revised IRR was the result of almost two months of consultations with concerned sectors, and it has passed scrutiny by the National Tripartite Industrial Peace Council, a consultative body presided by the labor secretary and composed of labor and employer representatives.
He added that the new rules stress that the terms and conditions of telecommuting “shall not be less than minimum labor standards, and shall not in any way diminish or impair the terms and conditions of employment contained in any applicable company policy or practice, individual contract or collective bargaining agreement.”
The revised IRR defines “alternative workplace” as any location where work, through the use of telecommunication and/or technology, is performed at a location away from the employer’s principal place of business, including but not limited to the employee’s residence, co-working spaces or other spaces that allow mobile working.
It states that a “regular workplace” means the principal place of business or any branch office or physical premises established or provided by the employer, where employees regularly report to or perform work.
Work performed in an alternative workplace shall be considered as work performed in the regular workplace of the employer.
Telecommuting employees are not considered field personnel, except when their actual hours of work cannot be determined with reasonable certainty.
The new IRR also provides that “all time that an employee is required to be on duty, and all time that an employee is permitted or suffered to work in the alternative workplace shall be counted as hours worked.”
The Department of Health previously backed the continuing implementation of the WFH arrangement as part of measures to control the spread of COVID-19 in the country.
Source: https://www.onenews.ph/articles/wfh-employees-entitled-to-overtime-pay-dole