Employees should receive all their unpaid holiday pay during the novel coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic by next month under a new issuance from the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).
In his Labor Advisory (LA) No. 31, Series of 2020, Labor Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III gave employers only until December 31, 2020, to release the unsettled holiday pay of workers.
“Employers, who were allowed to defer payment of their holiday pay of their employees as referred herein are required to pay all covered employees of the deferred holiday pay equivalent to 100 percent of their daily wage,” Bello said.
Since the government started enforcing stringent quarantine protocols to contain the pandemic last March, DOLE issued seven LAs from April to November, which allowed firms to postpone the payment of the holiday pay of their workers.
These were LA No. 13-A (Maundy Thursday); LA No. 15 (Labor Day); LA No. 20 (Eid’l Fitr); LA No. 22 (Independence Day); LA No. 25 (Eid’l Adha); LA No. 27 (Ninoy Aquino Day and National Heroes Day); and LA No. 29 (All Saints’ Day, All Souls’ Day and Bonifacio Day).
The policy aims to allow companies to cope with the disruptions caused by the pandemic on their operations and revenues.
However, during the second half of the year, many establishments were able to resume their operations on a limited scale as the government started relaxing quarantine restrictions.