​Bill mandating payment of 14th-month pay filed

Senate Minority Leader Vicente Sotto III. PHOTO BY JOHN ORVEN VERDOTE 

SENATE Minority Leader Vicente Sotto III has filed a bill requiring the private sector employers to grant their workers a 14th-month pay to ease the burden of rising costs.

Sotto noted that Presidential Decree 851, or the decree requiring all employers to pay their employees a 13th-month pay was enacted in 1976.

“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,” he said.

Under the proposed law, the 13th-month pay should be released by June 14 to help workers with their children’s educational expenses.

The 14th-month pay must be given not later than Dec. 24 to assist families with holiday and year-end costs.

“The bill has exemptions for qualified employers so as not to burden struggling businesses as they are equally important for our economy,” Sotto said.

The measure would cover all nongovernment rank-and-file employees, workers under the Kasambahay Law and others already entitled to 13th-month pay, provided they have worked for at least one month during the calendar year.

Exempted are distressed companies, nonprofit institutions suffering from major income declines and employers already providing a 14th-month pay or its equivalent.

Sotto said the bill supports employees without weighing down employers.