The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), issued a Department Circular directed to the ICT-enabled Business Process Outsourcing (ICT-BPO) sector, enjoining them to maintain business continuity for the duration of the Luzon-wide quarantine period.
The Circular also provides that Work-From-Home (WFH) arrangements, as far as practicable, be adopted by ICT-BPO companies. The ICT-BPO sector shall also transfer the necessary equipment to facilitate WFH arrangements within the periods set by the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Disease (IATF-MEID).
Moreover, ICT-BPO companies are also allowed to continue workplace operations through a skeleton workforce. Employees are permitted mobility to and from their place of work within areas affected by the quarantine, provided that appropriate temporary accommodation and/or shuttle service arrangements, within the immediate vicinity of the workplace shall be provided.
The DICT also provided guidelines and restrictions for said skeleton workforces to practice proper hygiene and exercise due prudence and discretion in maintaining a clean, healthy, and safe working environment to avoid the spread of infection.
Guidelines include monitoring of personnel exhibiting symptoms of the disease, regularly sanitizing the office premises, and ensuring that employees have proper identification at all times.
The DICT guidelines are intended to complement the policy directives of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) for the Export and BPO sectors contained in DTI Memorandum Circulars Nos. 20-06 and 20-08, which the ICT-BPO sector is similarly expected to heed.
