An additional 1,000 contact tracers will be hired via the Department of Labor and Employment's (DOLE) Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers (TUPAD) program, Secretary Silvestre Bello III said on Friday, April 23.
The move is meant to allow the government to hire more people after more than 10,000 individuals applied for just 5,000 job openings for contact tracing.
Bello, in the department's virtual press briefing Friday, said some P65 million will be added to the erstwhile TUPAD budget of P231 million to reflect the increase from 5,000 to 6,000 workers. The salary for each worker is P16,000 a month, for three months.
TUPAD is a cash-for-work program of DOLE meant to aid informal workers displaced by the pandemic. The agency had earlier tweaked the program in order to help in the contact tracing efforts of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) and the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA).
Contact tracing is key in controlling the spread of the dreaded coronavirus disease (COVID-19), especially with the recent surge of infections in the metropolis.
“The local governments through their respective Public Employment Service Offices (PESO) can boost their contact tracing with the additional funding for 1,000 more contact tracers,” Bello later said in a statement.
He noted that the additional 1,000 will be chosen from the surplus of applicants. The application period ran from April 17 to 22.
Bello said he has already told MMDA Chairman Benhur Abalos about the plan to hire more contact tracers and that the latter was thankful for it.
“In doing this, I hope that we clearly deliver the message that partnerships are relevant in beating the virus and pursuing national reocovery,” he added.