AMID widespread joblessness due to the economic recession, another lawmaker has filed a bill tripling the amount of unemployment insurance that laid-off workers can claim from the Social Security System (SSS).
In House Bill (HB) 8594, Surigao del Sur Rep. Johnny Ty Pimentel said he filed the bill to expand the benefits and compensation of the workers in private sector.
“Our current circumstances present a more difficult reality for workers whose employment was severed due to pandemic-induced economic regression,” Pimentel said.
Under the bill, dislocated workers can claim unemployment benefits equal to 50 percent of their monthly salary for a maximum of six months granted through a one-time payment.
At present, the subsidy is equal to 50 percent of the monthly salary for a maximum of two months.
“[The] bill seeks to give more meaning to social security and to the mandate of the 1987 Constitution for the State to afford full protection to labor,” Pimentel said. “We have to guarantee households income security and safeguard them against distress when breadwinners lose their jobs through no fault of their own.”
Once the bill is enacted, a displaced worker who used to earn P15,000 per month can claim P45,000 in unemployment benefits. Currently, the worker can claim only P15,000.
The bill seeks to amend Republic Act 11199 or the Social Security Act of 2018. Under the law, the unemployment insurance is a cash grant and not a loan. It does not have to be repaid.
The benefit is paid to covered employees, including household staff and overseas Filipino workers, who lost their jobs due to retrenchment or downsizing, closure or cessation of operation, installation of labor-saving devices, redundancy or similar reasons.
SSS members may avail of the benefit as long as they have paid at least 36 monthly contributions, 12 months of which should be in the 18-month period immediately preceding the month of involuntary separation.
According to Pimentel, the economy continues to shed jobs on account of the national and health crises.
Last week alone, PAL Holdings Inc. confirmed reports its unit, flag carrier Philippine Airlines, is laying off 2,100 employees or 35 percent of its workforce by mid-March.
Earlier, Marikina Rep. Stella Luz A. Quimbo filed HB 7028 or “An Act Instituting a National Unemployment Insurance Program” as millions of Filipinos lost their jobs as the economy contracted to its lowest rate since the Marcos dictatorship.
According to Quimbo, the Philippines needs a national unemployment insurance program that is capable of inter-temporal risk pooling that can protect workers even during a period of massive unemployment caused by a general economic downturn.