A congressman from the Bicol Region on Wednesday said telecommunications companies must improve their services to encourage employers into trying work-at-home arrangement for their workers whose personal presence in the workplace was not critical to their business.
Rep. Luis Raymund Villafuerte of Camarines Sur said 87 percent of Philippine-based companies polled by the Employers Confederation of the Philippines were open to telecommunication if there would be favorable factors such as better Internet connections.
Telecommuting, Villafuerte said, would drastically cut the expenses of workers as well as contribute to vehicular traffic decongestion in metropolitan areas.
“Disruptive technologies are already around and corporations need to be open to technological advancements for them to survive and gain competitive advantage,” Villafuerte, vice chairman of the House committee on local government, said.
“Telcos could help sharpen these firms’ competitiveness by doing a much better job of improving their Internet services ASAP.”
A co-author of the newly enacted Telecommuting Act, Villafuerte said that Internet speed was crucial to the timely accomplishments by workers of their assigned jobs.
Telecommuting will also help companies address workspace, location and transport or traffic congestion issues, Villafuerte added.
A survey conducted by the Employers Confederation of the Philippines to determine the prevalence of telecommuting practices following the enactment into law of Republic Act 11165, or tbe Telecommuting Act, shows that only 28 percent of Philippine-based companies are implementing telecommuting or work at home arrangement, although a large majority of 87 percent are open to the idea of doing so.
Earlier, Villafuerte called on the Department of Labor and Employment to sit down right away with the National Industrial Peace Council and other concerned stakeholders to formulate the implementing rules of the new law signed by President Rodrigo Duterte that has institutionalized work-at-home arrangements and, in the long run, would help ease the worsening traffic congestion in Metro Manila and other urban centers.
Telecommuting allows employees in the private sector to work at home or any other alternative work environment with the use of telecommunications or computer technologies or both, instead of having to go to their offices on a daily basis.
The law, which was signed by the President on Dec. 20, provides that “an employer in the private sector may offer a telecommuting program to its employees on a voluntary basis, and upon such terms and conditions as they mutually agree upon provided that such terms and conditions shall not be less than the minimum labor standards set by the law, and shall include compensable work hours, minimum number of work hours, overtime, rest days, and entitlement to leave benefits.”
Among Villafuerte’s proposals that were included in RA 11165 are the “fair treatment” provisions, which ensures that telecommuting employees are given the same treatment as that of employees working at the office in terms of rate of pay, right to rest periods, regular holidays, and special non-working days, same or equivalent workload, same access to training and career development opportunities, appropriate training on the technical equipment, and collective rights as the workers at the employer’s premises.
Villafuerte has long pushed for a telecommuting work arrangement for private sector employees to enhance work productivity and improve public health, in light of studies pointing to long commutes as one cause of chronic stress and other health disorders such as higher blood pressure levels that lead to cardiac attacks, diabetes and other killer diseases.
He also said that “on the side of the employer, businesses can cut costs from electricity to office supplies.”
