The Supreme Court (SC) started on Monday, December 14, its traditional year-end recess for decision writing and will resume sessions on January 4 next year.
But a check with the SC showed that Chief Justice Diosdado M. Peralta has called for a special full court session on Tuesday, December 15, to tackle various administrative cases that have been pending with the court.
The nature and the issues involved in the pending administrative cases set for deliberation were not divulged.
Trial courts nationwide are open 10 hours daily from Monday to Friday, except on holidays, as a result of the adoption of a four-day workweek for officials and employees last December 1.
With the four-day workweek, 80 per cent of all court personnel are mandated to report for work Mondays to Fridays from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and the remaining 20 per cent will take a one-day leave.
The one-day leave during weekdays will be implemented alternately among court officials and employees so that each of them would be able to render the required 40 hours of work weekly.
The traditional practice of flexible time and overtime work for employees has been cancelled starting December 1.
In a circular issued last November 24, Chief Justice Diosdado M. Peralta said the adoption of the four-day workweek is in line with the directive issued by the Civil Service Commission (CSC) last October 15 for implementation during the period of health emergency due to COVID-19 pandemic.
Since the start of COVID-19, Chief Justice Peralta has issued various circulars to assure that all courts are functioning. Among these are the adoption of video conferencing for hearings on civil and criminal cases, on line filing of petitions and other pleadings, and maintenance of skeleton staff in all courts.