DOLE asks private sector to offer isolation, quarantine benefits
The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) is urging the private sector to extend paid leave, on top of existing leave benefits, to employees who need to undergo quarantine due to COVID-19.
In a statement, DOLE said that this advisory will “ensure safe and humane working conditions” amid the ongoing infection surge in the country.
The department added that other leave benefits under the company policy, the Collective Bargaining Agreement, the Labor Code of the Philippines, and special laws should still separately apply to its workers.
According to guidelines by the Department of Health (DOH), fully vaccinated patients with mild or no symptoms of COVID-19 have to isolate for seven days, while the unvaccinated individuals would have to quarantine for 10 days.
Close contacts who are fully vaccinated would have to quarantine for five days, but with monitoring of symptoms until the 14th day, while the unvaccinated or partially vaccinated would have to quarantine for two weeks.
As of January 17, the country’s active COVID-19 cases reached a new all-time high of nearly 291,000 out of the over 3.2 million total number infected.
