Employers are still required to give workers their 13th month pay, and the labor department said Thursday it was planning to provide subsidies to distressed employers to ensure the delivery of the benefit.
“We will not postpone, defer, and we will not give any exemption to the payment of 13th month pay,” Bello told reporters. “The law says, ‘pay the workers their 13th month pay on or before December 24,’ ‘yan po ang ipapatupad ng Department of Labor (that is what will be implemented by the Department of Labor)."
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Bello acknowledged that the pandemic severely affected micro, small, and medium enterprises, rendering them unable to give workers the required 13th month pay. The DOLE called on the Department of Finance for subsidies.
“Ngayon, alam natin naman na ‘yung mga employers they want to give kaya lang meron talagang hindi kaya at ito ‘yung micro, small, and medium enterprises. ‘Yun ang tutulungan natin if our Secretary of Finance will approve our request na i-subsidize ‘yung mga micro and small enterprises,” he said.
(Now, we know that employers, they want to give but there are some that really can’t and those are the micro, small, and medium enterprises. They’re the ones we will help if our Secretary of Finance will approve our request to subsidize the micro and small enterprises.)
If the DOF cannot grant subsidies, Bello said they can be given credit lines by banks.