A lawmaker recently proposed a bill defining a worker’s resting hours and prohibiting employers from calling or asking to work during this period.
Under House Bill 10717, titled the “Workers’ Rest Law”, employers, managers and other similar agents are prohibited from contacting employees or requiring them to be on duty during their rest hours.
Rest hours are also defined as “any period other than the hours of work.”
The Labor Code of the Philippines mandated that the normal working hours should not exceed eight hours a day.
In Section 6, unless the worker gives consent, employers are prohibited from doing the following beyond working hours:
- Requiring an employee to report to work
- Requiring an employee to be on duty, to travel or attend work-related activities
- Contact the employee for work and work-related purposes via phone, email and other means of communication
Employers who violate the provisions of the bill shall pay P1,000 to the employee per hour of additional work rendered.
Rep. Joaquin Chipeco (Calamba City), who filed this bill, created this to help Filipino employees attain a healthy work-life balance, citing similar a move in other European countries.
“This bill seeks to uphold the letter and the spirit of our labor laws which is to respect mandated rest hours for our workers and prohibit the various forms of abuses in that connection,” Chipeco said in the explanatory note.
The counterpart of this is Senate Bill 2475 filed by Sen. Francis Tolentino last January.
In his explanatory note, Tolentino said that the lines between work and rest have severely “thinned” during the pandemic.
“For instance, instead of de-stressing at home from the pressures of work, work is now brought to the employees’ homes or wherever they go. Similarly, due to advances in technology, employees are now virtually always at the beck and call of their employers,” Tolentino said.
How netizens weighed in
Some Filipinos welcomed the proposed House Bill 10717 citing their experiences at work.
“Marami ganyan, pero hindi naman nagbabayad sa extra pinapagawa kaya nga rest day e. Hindi thank you,” a Facebook user said.
Others pointed out that employers’ resting period should also be respected.
“To be fair, the employee should likewise be barred from communicating with his employer after office hours to ask for cash advances, change schedules and the like,” a Twitter user said.
There were also several comments that called for a higher minimum wage instead.
Online users pointed out that workers normally perform overtime because of additional pay.
“Walang kwenta yang batas na yan…may mga empleyado na gusto talaga pumasok pag rest day kasi nga kulang na kulang sweldo at pasahod niyo,” a Facebook user said.
“Itaas ang sahod ng mga manggagawa dahil hindi na kaya bumli ng ulam at bigas ung per day nila,” another Facebook user commented.
Others also called on the government to raise the minimum wage in provinces.
“Isulong niyo pag taas ng sweldo sa mga probinsya,” one user said.
Wealthier countries in the world have similar laws in place, collectively called the “right to disconnect”, among their constituents.
This worker’s right reportedly started in France in 2017.
Under this labor law called the “El Khomri Law,” it is illegal for companies or employers to email their employees outside of regular work hours.
This year, in Belgium, government workers are given the right to not respond to calls and emails from their bosses outside of working hours.
Other countries with similar policies include Portugal, Italy and Germany.