Most workers in the Philippines will receive 13th-month pay

Alan Tanjusay, spokesman for the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP), added that most of the employers met the December 24 deadline, while others are expected to pay the 13^th month pay in January.

Nevertheless, he said many companies are putting employees on floating status or on furlough because of financial difficulty brought by the pandemic.

He said TUCP is alarmed by this trend as furloughed employees do not have rights, and do not know how long they will be “floating”. As such, Tanjusay said the union would ask the Labor Department to intervene in the issue.

In addition, TUCP expressed concerns on the increase of “independent contracting” as more businesses online are in need of workers. Workers under independent contracting are not in an employee-employer relationship and, as such, are not entitled to the minimum wage, and do not have social protection insurance like SSS, Pag-IBIG, and PhilHealth, according to ABS-CBN News.

READ: Businesses increase hiring as economy reopens in the Philippines

It is estimated that in the Philippines, there 1.5 million digital platform workers or online freelancers who are engaged in various project-based services or gigs, ranging from software development and writing to administrative support, virtual assistance, digital marketing, content moderation, data entry, and language instruction for overseas clients.