‘No vaccine, no pay’ practice declared unlawful in the Philippines

The Philippine government has declared that the “no vaccination, no pay” practice is unlawful. 

“You cannot withhold the salary of an employee or a worker without legal basis… You have to pay the employee when it is due,” said Labour Secretary Silvestre Bello III in a virtual forum, reports the Philippine News Agency.

“If found to have withheld the salary of the employee, we will immediately issue a compliance order,” said Bello. “If not paid, that [compliance] order will become final and executory.”

The scheme was also flagged by the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines, which reported that several workers have said that they were not paid their salaries as they were required to first present proof that they were vaccinated. 

“That is illegal. If work has been rendered, it is illegal to withhold salary regardless of the vaccination status of the worker,” Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon, a former labour secretary, said in a statement, according to Inquirer.

READ: Business groups in the Philippines call for restrictions on unvaccinated

“A vaccination card is not a daily time record that is a primary document to prove that a work has been rendered. Once a work or service is rendered, a company has an obligation under the law to pay the employee,” he said.