The Department of Labor and Employment on Thursday, October 15, the said all employers must give workers their 13th month pay no later than December 24 this year.
No postpone will be issued even as the economy suffers due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We will not postpone, we will not defer, and we will not give an exemption to the payment of the 13th month pay,” Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said during a televised briefing.
“The law says pay the workers their 13th month pay on or before December 24. ‘Yan po ang ipapatupad ng Department of Labor [That is what the Department of Labor will enforce],” he added.
Last week, Bello said his department is open to considering the deferment of giving 13th month pay by distressed businesses.
DOLE said it would release a complete Department Order on the matter on Friday, Oct. 16.
