Financial aid should go to both formal & informal workers -- NGO
By Leslie Ann Aquino
Labor group Defend Jobs Philippines said the government's one-time P5,000 financial assistance should be open to both the formal and informal sector workers affected by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.
"DOLE (Department of Labor and Employment) must craft a new and improved cash assistance delivery program that will be inclusive and non-discriminatory to all of our working forces," Defend Jobs Spokesman Thaddeus Ifurung said in a statement.
"As the national government brags on the availability of enough funds to aid our people in this time of crisis, we urge DOLE and the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases to realign its budget and allocate more funds that will aid millions of workers. Open it to all formal and informal workers," he added.
The DOLE COVID-19 Adjustment Measures Program (CAMP) offers financial support to affected workers in private establishments that have adopted FWAs or temporary closure during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III earlier urged the employers in the private sector to apply to DOLE’s CAMP which offers one time P5,000 financial support to employees of companies or business establishments that have adopted flexible work arrangements or temporary closure due to the COVID 19 pandemic.
For the informal sector workers, DOLE is implementing an emergency employment assistance through the TUPAD program or Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers wherein qualified beneficiaries will receive daily minimum wage for 10 days by disinfecting their houses and vicinities.
Aside from the daily wage, workers will get personal accident insurance, personal protective equipment, and cleaning kit.
Defend Jobs Philippines also lamented the slow processing of applications for CAMP.
The group urged Sec. Bello to rush the processing, approval and delivery of the cash assistance to the thousands of pending CAMP applications of employers for the benefit of the affected jobless employees.
"The P5,000 assistance is indeed a small amount that can somehow help our workers cope with the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic yet we wonder what is taking our government too long to hand this assistance to its beneficiaries," said Ifurung.