Despite government efforts to institutionalize telecommuting, fewer employees are now engaged in the said work arrangement, according to the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).
Based on its 2022 Job Displacement Report (JDR), DOLE said the growth in the number of employees covered by telecommuting work arrangement (TWA) in the last three months has slowed down.
From 33,707 last September, it rose by 4,515 to 38,226 in the following month. Last November, it only went up by 1,246 to 39,502.
The latest TWA figures are significantly lower compared to the 71,406 workers engaged in the said scheme in 2021, but slightly higher compared to the 37,434 in 2020.
From January to November this year, only 5,146 firms enforced flexible work arrangements (FWAs), such as TWA, as the government continued to ease its pandemic-related restrictions.
The figure is only about a third of the 16,586 establishments, which engaged in FWAs in 2021 thus contributing to the decline in the number of workers affected by the scheme.
“Year-on-year comparison shows that all types of FWAs reported a decrease in the number of affected workers with the largest drop from reduction of workdays [-54 percent or -262,779], followed by ‘others’ [-11.9 percent or 90,082] and rotation of workers [-74.2 percent or -44,966],” DOLE said in its 6-page JDR.
“Others” refer to modes that cannot be classified under any of the FWA categories.
The government and even the International Labor Organization have been advocating for the continuation of the TWAs even after the pandemic since it provides workers more “flexibility and better work-life balance.”
Last September, DOLE even came out with the updated implementing rules and regulations for Republic Act 1165 or otherwise known as the “Telecommuting Act” to encourage more firms to consider the work arrangement.