Holidays and leaves

There are several bills currently pending before the 17th Congress, all proposing to grant additional vacation leaves on all workers and employees in both government and private sectors. Ten of these bills have already been consolidated into one and earlier approved by the Senate on second and third reading. Its counterpart bill at the House of Representatives remains pending.

The Senate committee on labor, employment and human resources development chaired by Senator Joel Villanueva acted swiftly on the proposed measures providing additional leave benefits to workers in private and public institutions.

Senate Bill (SB) No. 1064 or the Parental Leave Act of 2016 was authored no less by Villanueva. It seeks to grant 15 working day parental leaves every year. Another bill, SB No. 360, seeks to extend the application of parental leave, to a person other than the parents, who takes care of the child. Under the proposal, at least two working days for each minor child but shall not exceed 10 working days shall be given for each parent or legal guardian.

On the other hand, SB Nos. 963, 1063 and 1209 seek to provide a paternity leave equal to 30 working days for the first four deliveries of legitimate or common-law spouse to every male employee, regardless of his employment status and whether he is married or into a common-law relationship. According to Villanueva, many of his fellow Senators share his belief that a father also has a role in child rearing and deserves to be granted paid leaves.

Sen. Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan filed a bill extending paid paternity leave from seven days to 30 days. The proposed measure, which amends Republic Act (RA) 8187 or the Paternity Leave Act of 1996, covers all married male employees in both the public and private sectors, as well as for all deliveries of their legitimate spouse, removing the previous cap that gives fathers this benefit only for the first four deliveries.

Pangilinan noted 79 countries worldwide have laws on paternity leave and 70 of them require a paid leave.

There are also SB Nos. 362 and 398 that seek to grant working women in the private sector and public service to a one-day paid pre-natal leave every month from filing of notice of pregnancy until delivery, abortion or miscarriage.

The bills were filed by Senators Nancy Binay and Loren Legarda who both invoked them as consistent with the provisions of the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), and the Magna Carta of Women.

Similar bills tackled by the labor committee included SB No. 854, or the School Visitation Leave filed by Senate President pro tempore Ralph Recto who sought to grant three days paid leave to employed parents or legal guardians to attend school-related activities. And SB No. 1387, or the OFW Legitimate Spouse Leave filed by Sen. JV Ejercito who wants a law that will give every legitimate spouse-employee of an overseas Filipino worker (OFW) an additional special leave credit of 15 days a year with full pay.

The country has the lowest paid maternity leave in Southeast Asia, lagging behind Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Cambodia which have 90 days. Vietnam has the most number of 180 days of paid maternity leave for new mothers.

Even without these proposed bills, there are already many employers and private companies that are generous in giving paid maternal and paternal leaves, on top of vacation and sick leaves to their employees, above the mandatory five-day service incentive leave under the Labor Code.

On top of these proposed new paid vacation leaves for all workers in both government and private offices, there are other proposed new laws in advanced stages of legislation in the 17th Congress that seek to declare new nationwide official non-working holidays.

Specifically, SB Nos. 304, 404, and 865 that seek to declare July 27 of each year a special non-working holiday to commemorate the founding anniversary of Iglesia ni Cristo. These proposed Senate bills are met with stiff objections from the country’s three largest Filipino businessmen’s groups because of the negative impact on labor productivity and cost of doing business in the Philippines with so many national holidays.

The Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI), the Philippine Exporters Confederation Inc. (Philexport), and the Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP) have jointly expressed concern over various holiday bills pending before the Senate committee on education, arts and culture chaired by Sen. Francis Escudero.

The businessmen’s groups noted with concern the Senate approved, on third and final reading last month, SB 1270 that declares the last Monday of January each year as National Bible Day as a “special working holiday.”

They particularly bucked the proposed newest national non-working holidays in addition to the existing ones being observed in the Philippines. There are currently 11 regular holidays, eight “special” non-working days for 2018 as listed in Proclamation No. 269 signed on July 17, 2017 by President Rodrigo Duterte.

So, there is a total of 19 national non-working days for this year alone.

Under our country’s Labor laws, if an employer require its workers to report to work on a regular holiday, the workers get double pay on that day. If they report for work on “special” non-working days, they get an additional 30 percent of the daily rate of 100 percent for the first eight hours of work.

Moreover, these national non-working days do not include local non-working holidays celebrated by local government units (LGUs). This is not to mention the intermittent declarations of work suspension due to typhoons, flash floods, and other natural or man-made calamities issued by Malacañang Palace, they rued.

The PCCI, Philexport and ECOP cited these holidays are apart from other paid leaves provided for by existing special laws, such as solo parent leave and maternity leave, among others.

Under RA 9492, the President has discretionary power to proclaim additional regular and special days. And the same law, also empowered the Chief Executive to rationalize the national holidays in the country.