The Nagkaisa labor coalition sees no reason to defer or pay by installment the 13th month pay of the workers for this year as the government stands ready to support small businesses amid the CoVID 19 pandemic.
"Pwede naman" installment basta fully paid before Dec 24. Other than that we will be transgressing the letter and spirit of the 13th month pay law.
We heard from the good DTI secretary that his department had already reached out to Small Business Corporation to develop a facility that will provide zero-interest loans to companies needing 13th month funding.
As early as last year, Nagkaisa also had called on
DOLE Secretary Silvestre Bello III for the government to grant 13th month subsidy to some 1.5 million to 5 million workers in the small and micro enterprises (SMEs).
Workers are more in distress, especially women workers in micro and small enterprises, which were hit hardest by this pandemic.
Nagkaisa agrees that the only way to ensure that the 13th month pay is enjoyed by all workers in all establishments is to give no interest loan or subsidy for SMEs.
Last year, Nagkaisa was able to formulate its own public employment agenda called the Unemployment Support and Work Assistance Guarantee (USWAG) that it submitted before DOLE last year and during the subsequent employment recovery meetings this year. USWAG is part of Nagkaisa’s more elaborate agenda called State of Labor and its Agenda on Recovery or SOLAR.
