The Philippine Economic Zone Authority said Monday it will support the shift of business process outsourcing firms to the hybrid work set-up from the work-from-home arrangement that will start on April 1, 2022.
“We are constantly in talks with IBPAP [IT Business Process Association of the Philippines] to still look into ways to include WFH or a hybrid work model in the IT-BPO sector’s operation in the Philippines. We should learn from the likes of India, one of our top competitors for IT-BPOs, wherein they are adjusting its policies and tax breaks to adopt hybrid work arrangement,” said PEZA director-general Charito Plaza.
The Fiscal Incentives Review Board rejected a previous proposal by PEZA to extend the WFH mode until September 2022, citing that movement of people to onsite work will help the economy recover faster.
Plaza said PEZA received messages from workers of registered IT-BPOs raising concerns about costs, health and safety regarding the return to office mandate. “PEZA will still file its appeal for reconsideration on the denial by the FIRB. For the meantime, I call onto our enterprises to follow the decision of the FIRB to avoid any penalties,” Plaza said.