Employers in the Philippines told to maintain COVID-19 safety protocols

Despite the easing of community restrictions, Philippines’ Department of Labour and Employment is calling on companies to maintain the safety protocols in their workplaces. 

The Occupational Safety and Health Centre (OSHC), under the Philippines’ Department of Labour and Employment (DOLE), has highlighted that it would be wrong for workplaces to start getting complacent against COVID-19.

“We advise all employers to still be vigilant. Just because we are at Alert Level 1, it doesn’t mean that we can already disregard safety and health protocols,” said OSHC Executive Director Noel Binag.

“To our owners and employers, let us continue our vigilance and maintain our occupational safety and health (OSH) programs, particularly the prevention and control protocols against COVID-19,” he said. 

Binag believes that employers have the capacity to strictly implement anti-Covid protocols, citing how OSH programmes have been properly carried out when the country was under higher Alert Levels. 

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“Based on the reports of our field offices, the majority followed the safety and health protocols,” he said, noting that “there were only a few reported complaints, such as those without safety officers and OSH policies in their respective establishments”.