ILOILO City – Not all workplaces can easily shift to a four-day workweek scheme, according to the Iloilo Business Club (IBC). The management of establishments should have the prerogative to determine if such a shift is feasible, it stressed.
Amid soaring oil prices, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick Chua suggested a shorter workweek to save on gas.
According to IBC executive director Atty. Eunice Guadalope, industries such as manufacturing, tourism, food, accommodation, wholesale and retail of basic goods and necessities must follow the demands of the markets and what’s best for it, and the needs of people.
In a four-day workweek scheme, employees will still work 40 hours per week. But instead of five days, it will be four; and instead of eight hours per day, it will be 10 hours per day.
“We uphold the right of employers to determine what is the best course of action for their employees and their businesses within the bounds of the law, may it be a four-day workweek, a work-from-home set-up, or other flexible working arrangements,” said Guadalope.
Their group, however, recognizes the wisdom behind the four-day workweek and acknowledges that there are businesses and institutions which will find it cost-effective and productive to adopt the scheme, such as the city government.
“The IBC leaves it to the sound discretion of employers, who are in the best position to know their industry and market, on whether they should implement the proposed four-day work week in their workplaces (or not),” Guadalope stressed.
The business group also recognized that rising fuel prices is beyond their control and what they can only do right now is to minimize, as much as possible, its adverse impact on businesses employees.
“This is an especially crucial period…we are still…recovering from the…effects of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic,” Guadalope lamented.
For now, to help their employees cope with rising fuel prices, Guadalope said some employers offer alternative work arrangements such as work-from-home set-up or alternate reporting schedule.
Others offer their employees from-home-to-workplace and vice-versa shuttle service.
On Thursday, Iloilo City’s Mayor Jerry Treñas announced that the city government will be observing a four-day workweek setup to commence by the last week of March.
“This will give our employees time to adjust their schedules both at work and in their homes,” Treñas said.
The city government will tap modern jeepneys to ferry its employees from the district plazas (as pickup points) to the city hall and back every day.
Meanwhile, at the Iloilo provincial government, Gov. Arthur Defensor Jr. said he is also open to observing a four-day workweek for provincial government employees.
“If you reduce the number of working days in one week for our employees, fuel consumption also decreases,” Defensor explained.
The provincial government implemented such a work scheme last year, he revealed, although it was not because of fuel price hikes but due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.
Defensor said that during that period, provincial government employees rendered 10 hours of work a day for four days although it was not done simultaneously, so the capitol still operates five days a week./PN
