By Leslie Ann Aquino
Labor group Defend Jobs Philippines on Monday submitted to the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) a list of private companies who allegedly have yet to apply for financial assistance from the government for the benefit of their workers.
Defend Jobs Philippines (FACEBOOK / MANILA BULLETIN)
According to the group, in the list are 3,557 companies who have not yet applied for the P5,000 COVID-19 Assistance Measure Program (CAMP) emergency cash assistance of the Department of Labor and Employment.
CAMP is a safety net program that offers financial support to affected workers in private establishments that have adopted flexible working hours or temporary closure during the enhanced community quarantine to prevent the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
In a statement, Thadeus Ifurung, Defend Jobs Philippines spokesperson, said the submitted list came from the16,432 online complaints received from March 24 to 28 during their COVID-19 Labor Monitor campaign.
Defend Jobs Philippines said based on the total 16,432 complaints received online, 28, or 0.17 percent, said that they have already received the P5,000 cash assistance, while 8,563 online complaints (52.1 percent) said that their employers did not apply for CAMP due to various reasons.
The labor group said that 7,823 (or 47.6 percent) said that they are still waiting for the response and processing of DOLE on the application of their employers.
“We hope that Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III will have time to immediately check, investigate and act accordingly on the list that we consolidated and sent to them today. May our appeal to Bello be acted and cascaded from DOLE’s national offices down to its regional, provincial and field offices in the soonest possible time,” said Ifurung.
“We urge DOLE to be decisive enough in implementing its own programs by further pushing employers to comply for the sake of their workers. If companies will remain non-compliant to the policy, then the government must take up appropriate legal actions against them," he added.
The group also asked DOLE to provide a running list of pending CAMP application processes of employers.
"We wish to see these updates posted on any of DOLE’s social media platforms immediately,” said Ifurung.