Senator Vicente “Tito” Sotto III has refiled a bill requiring private sector employers to grant their workers a 14th month pay to ease the burden of rising costs and help families cope with education expenses.
In filing the bill, Sotto said that it has almost been 50 years since former President Ferdinand Marcos Sr. signed the 1976 presidential decree requiring employers to grant workers a 13th month pay. “After almost five decades, the needs and cost of living of every Filipino worker have drastically changed, thus it is high time that employees in the private sector receive their 14th month pay,” Sotto explained.
Under the proposed legislation, private companies are required to release the 13th month pay in June to help workers with the educational expenses of their children, while the 14th month pay is released in December to help families with holiday and year-end costs.
It covers non-government rank-and-file employees, workers under the Kasambahay Law, and others already entitled to 13th month pay.
However, Sotto also said that exemptions will be made for struggling businesses, “as they are equally important for our economy.” Aside from distressed companies, non-profit institutions dealing with major income deadlines and companies already providing the equivalent of a 14th month pay will also be exempted.
Sotto first filed the bill in 2013, but the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) released a report saying that a 14th month pay could worsen unemployment. But Sotto justified the bill, claiming that the 14th month pay would be a “true bonus.”
“There’s no such thing as 13th month pay na bonus kung tutuusin,” he said. “Bakit? There are 52 weeks in a year, divide it by four weeks in a month. Thirteen months. Wala namang bonus na ibinigay e. Ito pa lang ang tunay na bonus, itong 14 month pay.”
