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The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) should issue a directive to protect workers from the extreme summer heat, Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel III said on Monday, April 24. Pimentel said the DOLE should order the automatic suspension of work outdoors or indoors when there is a Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical, and Atmospheric Services Administration (PAGASA) announcement on very high temperature levels. He cited the case of construction workers and street sweepers whose work should be suspended during the searing heat. The Senate chief fiscalizer said DOLE should make it clear that workers should get paid when their work is suspended because of very high temperatures. Pimentel pointed out that work suspensions would not have a great effect on their work or on the economy because this would not be done everyday.