The Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) is easing its 50-percent cap on remote work for firms registered in its zones, a policy shift that will now include select manufacturing jobs in addition to IT-BPM roles, director-general Tereso Panga said Tuesday.
Speaking on the sidelines of the two-day Water Forum, Panga said the revised policy would exclude administrative and finance personnel from the remote work computation.
This means the 50-percent cap would only apply to core operational staff such as factory workers and contact center agents.
“In the early stages, it was exclusive only to IT. Now, even manufacturing companies, probably those with non-sensitive positions like finance and admin, can do remote work,” Panga said.
“We will relax it so that the threshold can actually be increased more than 50 percent, because we will exclude admin and finance people from the count,” he said.
The measure has been “pre-cleared” with the Fiscal Incentives Review Board (FIRB) but is still subject to the board’s final approval, he said.
PEZA is also waiting for inputs from the IT and Business Process Association of the Philippines (IBPAP) before rolling out the new work-from-home policy.
The policy will allow companies to exceed the remote work limit during business continuity disruptions, provided they notify PEZA, said Panga.
Panga expects the new guidelines to be released by late August or early September.
“The general rule is not to exceed the 50-percent limit, but this will give companies more flexibility,” he said.
