MANILA, Philippines — Sens. Risa Hontiveros and Francis "Kiko" Pangilinan have joined calls urging the government to allow call center workers to continue their work-from-home set-up, amid rising transport costs driven by sustained fuel price hikes.
The Fiscal Incentives Review Board (FIRB) earlier moved to refuse the extension of work-from-home arrangements of business processing outsourcing (BPO) employees, citing that such a set-up was a "temporary measure" adopted during the height of the pandemic.
Related Stories
This means Information Technology-Business Process Management (IT-BPM) companies located in tax perks-giving economic zones can only continue remote work for 90% of their workforce until March 31, a deadline which the industry wanted to extend to September 12 this year.
Companies that violate FIRB's resolution would risk having their tax breaks revoked, a punishment that can potentially hurt the industry.
"I support the extension of the work from home arrangement for workers especially now that we are in the middle of an oil price crisis," Hontiveros said in a statement Friday.
The lawmaker said the FIRB has the option to revise the tax incentive terms, adding that it is "reasonable" to let BPO workers continue working from home in a bid to help cushion the impacts of rising transport costs.
Hontiveros said the Finance department, led by Carlos Dominguez III, was wrong in saying that it was important to end the work-from-home set-up to revive economic demand.
Dominguez earlier said that the employees' return to the office will pave the way for the recovery of local micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) which depend on BPO employees for their livelihoods.
"BPO workers will keep consuming [goods] wherever they work. They will keep spending whether they are at home or if they report on-site. They will lose more [money] if they have to buy gasoline or use their money for commuting instead of spending more for essential needs at home," Hontiveros said in Tagalog.
On Friday, Sen. Francis "Kiko" Pangilinan echoed her statements, saying that he was one with BPO workers and the Philippine Economic Zone Authority who want to continue the work-from-home arrangement.
"I am against the calls of the FIRB and Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Chua for BPO workers to go back to the office. We must put a stop to policies that were made without the knowledge and without consulting the IT-BPO industry," he said in Filipino.
Last week, another senator Joel Villanueva, who chairs his chamber's labor, employment and human resources development committee, said the rising costs in transport partly driven by the geopolitical war between Ukraine and Russia should be a "reasonable" appeal to extend the deadline beyond March 31.
"If government is scrambling to "soften the pain" of surging oil prices for many sectors like drivers and farmers, then 1.3 million BPO workers should be entitled to the same mitigation," he said in a statement.
He claimed that it will not cost the government anything to allow the workers to continue working from home.
In April 2020, a month after the Philippine government placed Metro Manila under strict lockdown in a bid to curb the spread of COVID-19, BPOs and their service providers were allowed to install necessary work-from-home equipment, a protocol which the government believed would make it easier for employees to continue reporting to work.