CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – The Workers’ Alliance in Region III (WAR-III), has decried the Department of Labor and Employment in Region 3 (DOLE-3) for announcing in a press release last May 4 the end of their cash assistance to workers via the Covid-19 Adjustment Measures Program (CAMP).
“We regretfully announce to our clients that the list that we published today is the final list of establishments with approved CAMP applications in Region 3. With the limited resources that we have, we can no longer accommodate the other thousands of applications that we have received,” the DOLE press release said.
WAR-III chair Pol Viuya said WAR-III and other labor groups have been firm and constantly calling on the government to assure all the workers that have been affected by the lockdown to receive aid weather they are from small or big establishments or companies.
But Viuya said DOLE kept on implementing “discriminatory” and “bureaucratic red tape.”
Meanwhile, DOLE Region 3 said establishments that are not in the said list are encouraged to apply for assistance under the Small Business Wage Subsidy (SBWS) Program of the Department of Finance.
Under the SBWS, the government, through the Social Security System, shall provide a wage subsidy from P5,000 to P8,000 (based on the regional minimum wage) per month per eligible employee. Applications will be completed by employers on behalf of their workers. The SSS will only be accepting applications until Friday, May 8.
“WAR-III already pointed out that the transferring the of program to the DOF has no logical basis, and many establishments doesn’t even remit to the SSS. And still there will be tens of thousands of workers that will not be receiving aid, because big companies have large concentration of workers who have been affected by the lockdown.” Viuya explained.
“We would like to express our disappointment to the said program, DOLE should continue their aid even when the lockdown eases or is lifted, because workers lost a lot these past months,” Viuya said.
“We prefer the CAMP because it is relatively easier for the workers rather than DOF’s SBWS,” Viuya added.
