Topic: DOLE allows compressed work week for IT & Publishing Firms

[Rockford]

DOLE allows compressed work week for IT, publishing firms to save on workers' transport expenses

MANILA - The Department of Labor and Employment has allowed an information technology company and a printing and publishing firm to implement a compressed work week to save on their workers' transportation expenses.

In a news release, the department on Tuesday said its National Capital Region office on January 10 gave its go signal to the management and workers of the Manila branch of the IT company AE Inc. to allow the new scheme starting February 1 this year.

The new scheme means that instead of working from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Saturday, company employees will be made to report only from Monday to Friday but with working hours longer by one-and-half hours per day. That would come to 47.5 hours per week without any corresponding overtime pay.

Earlier, on January 2, DOLE granted another company, this time Visprint Inc., a medium-sized offset printing and publishing company in Pasay City, its request to implement a similar scheme. The company’s 69 employees, 23 of whom are female, agreed to the scheme.

"We are doing a compressed work week to cut cost in utility consumption, but more importantly, to provide our employees with additional rest day and more time to spend with their families," said Nida Ramirez, Visprint Inc. president.

DOLE Secretary Rosalinda Dimapilis-Baldoz on Tuesday said such arrangements are allowed under DOLE Advisory No. 4, Series of 2010, or the "Guidelines on the Implementation of Flexible Work Arrangements and the Exemption from the Nightwork Prohibition for Women Employees in the Business Process Outsourcing Industry."

"The concept of flexible work arrangement refer to alternative arrangements or schedules other than the traditional or standard work hours, work days, and work week," the secretary said.

But Baldoz hastened to add that the effectivity and implementation of any flexible work arrangement shall be based on a voluntary agreement between the employer and the employee.

"Also, it shall in no case result to the diminution of existing employee benefits," Baldoz emphasized, adding:

"The parties to the arrangement shall be primarily responsible for its administration and differences in interpretation shall be treated as grievances under the applicable grievance mechanism of the company."

She said that if there is no grievance mechanism, or if this mechanism is inadequate, the grievance shall be referred for appropriate conciliation to the DOLE regional office which has jurisdiction over the workplace.

Other ‘flexi’ arrangements

Under the DOLE Advisory, the three flexible arrangements that companies and their employees may consider are the following:

    Compressed work week, where the normal work week is reduced to less than six days, but the total number of work hours of 48 hours per week shall remain. In this arrangement, the normal work day is extended to more than eight hours, but should not exceed 12 hours, without corresponding overtime premium.
    Gliding, or flexi-time schedule, where the employees are required to complete the core work hours, but are free to determine their arrival and departure time.
    Flexi-holidays schedule, where the employees agree to avail the holidays at some other days, provided there is no diminution of existing benefits as a result of such arrangement.

Benefits of flexible work schedules

The idea of a compressed work week has been floated recently by some sectors, arguing that it will minimize vehicular traffic in the metropolis, among other cited benefits.

But while there is no definitive proof that a compressed work week will de-clog city streets, Baldoz said flexible work arrangements are designed to improve business competitiveness and productivity.

"These arrangements can give employers and employees flexibility in fixing hours of work compatible with business requirements and the employees' need for balanced work-life," she explained.

"Based on the DOLE experience during the global financial crisis when the compressed work week was adopted by some companies as one of the measures to mitigate the effects of the crisis, it produced positive results, one of which is savings on utilities, such as electric, water, and telephone bills on the part of the companies, and savings on transportation costs on the part of the workers,” she added.

The labor chief further said that rapid technological innovations and the continuing transformation of work processes and work places brought about by globalization moved the DOLE to issue the guidelines.

Since then, many companies, in consultation and in agreement with their employees, have voluntarily adopted flexible work arrangements, such as the compressed work week.

Common in Cavite

In Cavite, for example, almost all electronics manufacturing companies have been implementing compressed work week, according to DOLE Regional Office No. 4-A Director Zenaida Angara-Campita.

"Nakakabawas 'yan sa traffic kasi sa halip na three shifts, two shifts na lang ang trabaho sa isang araw," according to one company owner.

“It reduces traffic because instead of three shifts, work is reduced to two shifts in a day.”

Baldoz said any flexible work arrangement should also consider the flexibilities of today’s work places.

“If we have to adopt a compressed work week, for example, it doesn't necessarily mean involving the whole operation of a company. It could only be one or two units, or involve those types of work that can be done even without the need for the physical presence of the worker, or work that can be done through the Internet, which modern technology now allows,” she explained.

http://www.interaksyon.com/business/80070/dole-allows-compressed-work-week-for-it-publishing-firms-to-save-on-workers-transport-expenses

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