Labor Secretary Bienvenido Laguesma (File photo)
MANILA – Companies only have until Jan. 15 to submit their 13th-month pay compliance report, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) said on Monday.
“Yes, under the IRR (Implementing Rules and Regulations) of the law, report of compliance shall be done not later than Jan. 15 of each year. Thus, it is expected that reports will be submitted. There is no extension,” Labor Secretary Bienvenido Laguesma said in a message to reporters.
He noted that the timely submission of the report will enable them to plan on how to go about on those who did not comply with the order.
He added that companies may submit their reports online through the the DOLE Establishment Report System at https://reports.dole.gov.ph/
“For more information, visit our website for the copy of Labor Advisory No. 25-23 Guidelines on the Payment of Thirteenth-Month Pay, at https://bwc.dole.gov.ph/issuances/labor-advisories,” the DOLE added.
The payment of the 13th month is mandatory under the Labor Code of the Philippines and Presidential Decree No. 851.
Employers are ordered to give the benefit to their workers on or before Dec. 24.
In a related development, DOLE-Central Visayas will conduct technical advisory visits to 10,000 micro-establishments in the region to ensure labor law compliance.
Lilia Estillore, regional director of DOLE-7, said the 10,300 micro-establishments in the region awaiting visitation would be about a 12 percent increase in last year's 9,107 shops they visited to determine if they comply with the labor standards.
Estillore said apart from visiting the establishments, they will also strengthen four programs and services of the agency, such as the Single Entry Approach (SEnA) settlement of labor disputes, labor inspections, technical safety inspections, technical advisory visits, case management, and execution of labor cases.
For labor inspections, the agency is to visit 2,180 establishments.
“We believe that imbibing the value of customer focus will help us become more empathic as we carry out our mandate as an organization. This would entail the labor inspectors, for instance, to feel what the workers and the companies inspected are feeling and thinking and aspiring to achieve,” she said. (PNA)
