SENATOR Imee Marcos pressed the Department of Finance (DOF) on Friday to promptly “iron out inconsistencies” between its back-to-office order and the Duterte administration’s approval of work-from-home set up before the deadly Covid-19 pandemic.
Speaking as chairperson of the Senate Committee on Economic Affairs, the lawmaker lamented the “lack of consistent and comprehensive policy” on the work-from-home (WFH) arrangements, which she said discouraged the entry of more foreign investors, and made it “harder for the next administration to keep investment growth on track.”
The senator called out the DOF amid rising fears that the IT-BPO sector—a “golden goose” in government’s exports revenues and a vital job generator—is hurting from the government’s insistence on compelling them to make their employees return to on-site work right away, or lose their incentives.
“Companies in export zones are now afraid of losing their tax incentives if they do not resume all operations on-site. But their work-from-home programs were approved as early as 2017, which the Telecommuting Act of 2018 also supports,” Marcos pointed out.
The Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza) approved the pre-pandemic WFH programs of companies that mainly belonged to the information technology and business process management (IT-BPM) sector: Accenture, ANZ Global Services and Operations, Deltek Systems, HSBC Electronic Data Processing, Optimum Global Solutions, and PSG Global Solutions.
Marcos cited reports that despite two years of the pandemic and under WFH conditions, the IT-BPM sector even grew its work force by 8.9 percent to 10 percent and its revenue by about 9.5 percent to 14.5 percent, quoting Peza data.
However, she also noted that the Fiscal Incentives Review Board (FIRB), headed by the DOF, ordered a return to full office operations at the end of March to aid the recovery of businesses that depend on IT-BPM workers for their livelihood.
Marcos maintained that micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) like community groceries, restaurants, and delivery services would also thrive where employees worked from home.
Amid lingering apprehensions over a pandemic resurgence, Marcos backed Peza’s call to extend WFH set-up until the end of the government’s state of calamity declaration in September.
Marcos agreed that working from home helps employees save on fuel and commuting costs, besides minimizing traffic and public transport congestion.
Moreover, she added that Wi-fi connection problems would also ease with the broader distribution of Internet bandwidth away from business centers—something that, the senator reminded, even the FIRB recognizes.
Peza: Don’t rock the boat
Earlier this week, Peza appealed to those rushing the return-to-work deadline to “not rock the boat” while the country is still in the middle of a pandemic and global economic crisis. It urged the government to listen to the plight of the IT-BPO sector on pushing for continued WFH arrangement.
“What we are appealing is a status quo, let us not rock the boat while we are still in this pandemic, in this global recession and other crisis, all we are asking the government is to have sensitivity so the trust and confidence of our investors will not diminish,” Peza Director General Charito B. Plaza told members of the House Ways and Means Committee on Monday as she called for the extension of the WFH set-up.
In March, Peza supported the adoption of a hybrid WFH arrangement for the IT and BPO industries until the end of the year.
In a statement in March, Plaza favored the decision of continued WFH arrangement beyond the March 31 deadline set by the FIRB.
With this, Plaza noted on Monday that “we have been sending appeal approved by the Peza board to extend the work from home arrangement but we were denied because of the reason that we are now opening up the economy.”
Although the Philippine economy is already heading towards recovery as the majority of the areas in the country are already placed under the lowest level of restriction or Alert Level 1, Plaza insisted that we are not out of the woods yet due to the recent spike in fuel prices that made transportation more costly for workers.
“The pandemic is not yet over although we are now in Alert Level 1,” she stressed.
Ukraine war
Plaza added that apart from the pandemic, the country is still bearing the brunt of the Ukraine war and the global recession, which now leads to Peza’s plea to be sensitive regarding the WFH request.
However, Finance Assistant Secretary Juvy Danofrata stressed that “the board has reiterated time and again the position and the justification for that.”
“On the 70-30 previous policy of Peza again we don’t know the legal basis because when you talk about the 70-30 you are talking about the sales outside of the zone it’s not about the processing or even of the registered activity outside the zone,” added Danofrata.
The Finance assistant secretary also noted that “nangayayari po ngayon nakikipag-agawan ang mga underground IT-BPO sa mga employment, they are offering P30,000 to P40,000 for the IT workers, your honor, so mas lalo tayong nalulugi doon kung hindi natin i-allow yung hybrid at lalong madagdagan yung mga underground na mga IT-BPO who are not registered so it’s a loss to the government.”
Danofrata added that there’s no security of tenure and no protection to workers in terms of underground IT-BPO.