The Philippine Economic Zone Authority said Friday it authorized registered business enterprises and IT-business process management companies to practice hybrid work set-up until Sept. 12, 2022.
PEZA director-general Charito Plaza asked PEZA-registered IT-BPMs and other registered business enterprises that could not immediately return to office to request a letter of authority from the agency to allow 70-percent of their workforce to work on site and 30 percent to work from home.
“Now that we are on our way back to normal, the government would want the economy to go back to what was normal before the pandemic and to do this, (it) suggested 70-30 work plan,” she said.
“PEZA’s work from home scheme for registered IT-BPOs and RBEs has been conceptualized even before the passage of Republic Act No. 11165, or the Telecommuting Act on Dec. 20, 2018,” she said.
Plaza said the agency was counting on the incoming administration to institutionalize hybrid as a permanent work scheme that would be protected by the Department of Labor and Employment for the safety, and security of tenure of workers.
She said that since 2020 when the pandemic began, one of PEZA’s Bayanihan business assistance and reprieves was the temporary increase of WFH arrangements to 90-percent WFH and 10-percent onsite.
PEZA deputy director-general for policy and planning Tereso Panga said the provisions of the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises Law do not prohibit PEZA-registered RBEs and IT-BPM companies from conducting remote work or performing a portion of their activity outside the economic zones.
“As long as our ecozone locators doing hybrid work are complying with the minimum 70-percent export sales and minimum 70-percent on-site report by their workers, they are entitled to enjoy our tax incentives,” he said.
He said the 30-percent WFH setup is a permissible activity under PEZA, CREATE, and Telecommuting laws.
Plaza said that even prior to the pandemic, the hybrid work model was also being practiced worldwide specifically in India, the Philippines’ top competitor in the IT-BPM sector.
She said recognizing and adapting to the global trend was needed to maintain the country’s competitiveness and flexibility in the ‘new normal’.
PEZA had 1,274 IT locator companies operating in 297 IT centers/parks and providing 1,017,559 jobs nationwide with exports of $15.797 billion as of end-2021.
The IT-BPO industry is one of the major economic growth drivers.