DOLE requires ‘standing breaks’ for sedentary workers

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Labor and Employment has issued an order requiring offices to give employees standing breaks for employees to the health risks related to sedentary work.

Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III has signed Department Order 184, which sets mandatory occupational safety and health standards in all workplaces to address health risks and ensure safe working conditions in offices.

Sedentary work or prolonged sitting while working poses threats to workers as it can lead to high blood pressure, heart disease, anxiety, musculoskeletal disorders and other health problems.

Under the order, employers must provide workers with regular five-minute breaks every two hours from sitting time.

“[Employers] must encourage workers to reduce sedentary work by interrupting sitting time and substitute it with standing and walking,” DOLE said.

Employers must also ensure that workstations are designed appropriately for the type of work and redesign work tasks to enable greater variability in movement or posture.

Company bosses should also conduct awareness campaigns on the health effects of sedentary work and medical surveillance among workers who are at risk of getting harmful health effects of prolonged sitting.

DOLE’s order applies to all workers who, by the nature of their work, have to spend long hours sitting. 

DOLE also backs the proposal to implement a compressed four-day workweek, saying it will provide work-life balance. 

Labor groups and employers have opposed the proposal saying the scheme will hardly benefit workers.

Partido Manggagawa national chairman Rene Magtubo said the proposal will lead to employees being more overworked and underpaid.

"Millions of workers already work 12 hours day because they avail of overtime as a way of augmenting their meager daily wages which are not enough to sustain their families," he said in September.

In August, Employers Confederation of the Philippines chairman Donald Dee said in a television interview that a compressed work week will not benefit companies much and will affect workers' health as well as their family lives.

"What time do they have for their kids who are already asleep when they go home, who are still asleep when they leave the home?" Dee said then.  

READ: DOLE assesses impact of 4-day workweek