NEDA chief recommends 4-day workweek to conserve energy

Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick Chua on Tuesday suggested for the government to impose a four-day workweek to conserve energy and alleviate the public’s expenses amid the series of bigtime oil price hikes.

During President Rodrigo Duterte’s Talk to the People aired on Wednesday morning, Chua, who also heads the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), said the country should exercise energy conservation by limiting the mobility of workers into four days with increased hours of duty per day.

“Siguro subukan natin ‘yung conservation of energy at isa sa halimbawa dito ay ‘yung four-day workweek. Magta-trabaho pa rin po ang bawat Pilipino ng 40 hours per week pero imbes na sa limang araw, ay apat na araw. Imbes na walong oras, magiging sampung oras kada araw,” he said.

(Let’s try energy conservation and one of the examples here is through the four-day workweek. Every Filipino will still work 40 hours per week but instead of five days, it will be four days. Instead of eight hours, it will be ten hours per day.)

Chua said the country had already implemented such changes in the 1990s during the Gulf War and in 2008 when the fuel prices also increased then.

“Ang epekto nito ay makakatipid din imbes na araw-araw magko-commute, ay magiging apat na araw. Ito ay makakatulong din sa pag-manage ng ekonomiya natin,” he added.

(Its effect will also help people save money because instead of commuting every day, they will be commuting only for four days. It will also help manage our economy.)

WFH

Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi, meanwhile, echoed Chua's proposal, adding that they are also pushing for energy efficiency and conservation.

“We also support the panukala na four-day workweek at tsaka ‘yung pankulala na palawigin muna natin ang work from home para sa ganon po mabawasan ang pagbiyahe ng ating mga mamamayan,” he said.

(We also support the proposal of a four-day workweek and also the proposal that we extend the work from home arrangements so as to reduce the travel of our people.)

Many Philippine companies started implementing work from home arrangements in 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic. However,  requests to extend remote-work arrangements by Information technology-business process management (IT-BPM) companies were thumbed down by Fiscal Incentives Review Board (FIRB).

Aside from conserving energy, Chua also put forward providing targeted relief to vulnerable sectors in the country and allocating unconditional cash transfers of P2,400 for the bottom 50% of the households.

This was also backed by Cusi.

Inflation

Chua made the recommendations after emphasizing that increasing the minimum jeepney fare and minimum wage would mean an increase in the country's inflation rate.

“Ang epekto po nito kung magtaas ‘yung minimum wage. Halimbawa, at ‘yung mga fares ng jeepney and buses ay magdadag ito sa ating inflation rate by 1.4%. So ‘yung 3.7% na sabi ng Central Bank ay expected na madadagdagan ng 1.4% magiging 5.1% na,” he said.

“The effect of this is that if the minimum wage and the fares of jeepneys and buses will increase, our inflation rate will also increase by 1.4%. The 3.7% that the Central Bank is saying is expected to increase by 1.4% and will be 5.1%," Chua added.

“Dahil po dito, dapat maingat tayo. Madami tayong gustong ma-achieve pero dapat alam natin kung ano mas nakakabuti sa ating kapwa Pilipino,” he added.

(Because of this, we should be careful. We want to achieve lots of things but we should consider what would be better for our countrymen.)

Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said last week that the minimum wage in the National Capital Region (NCR) may no longer be enough for workers and their families due to the increase in the prices of basic goods.

Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) then appealed for a P470 increase in NCR's daily minimum wage, bringing it to P1,007.

Oil firms this week implemented another major price hike, marking the 11th straight week of increases with domestic pump prices already hitting P84.55 per liter in select areas across the country.

Due to the successive increases in pump prices of petroleum products, several transport groups also petitioned to increase jeepney fares.  —KBK, GMA News