BY RENE GENOVE
City government employees, who were physically working in the frontlines while Dumaguete was under Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ), are entitled to receive the COVID-19 hazard pay, Mayor Felipe Antonio Remollo said.
Remollo said the list of qualified employees are under review by concerned department heads to ensure that those included were indeed present and working during the ECQ period.
Administrative Order No. 26 provides that the Sangguniang Panlungsod shall determine the rate of hazard pay depending on the LGU’s financial capability at rates not exceeding P500 per day subject to Personal Services limitation and chargeable against Fiscal Year 2020 local government funds.
Remollo said among those entitled to receive the hazard pay are employees from the City Health Office, BHW Command Center, City Social Welfare and Development Office, Traffic Management Office, Special Enforcement Unit, barangay health workers, City Public Market, and City Disaster Risk Reduction Office.
Eligible to receive the COVID-19 hazard pay are personnel occupying regular, contractual, and casual positions or those engaged through contract of service, job order or other similar schemes. They must have been authorized to physically report to work on the prescribed official working hours, he added.
Meanwhile, the Department of Science and Technology’s Metals Industry Research and Development Center (DOST-MIRDC), through the DOST Negros Oriental Provincial S&T Center, donated around 2,000 face shields to the provincial government of Negros Oriental, and 25 local government units recently.
DOST Negros Oriental S&T director, Gilbert Arbon, spearheaded the distribution of face shields to the COVID-19 NegOr Inter-Agency Task Force, led by Provincial Health Officer, Dr. Henrissa Calumpang, and the beneficiaries will be the Negros Oriental Provincial Hospital, district hospitals, community primary hospitals, rural health units, and all LGU offices.
Responding to the country’s need for supplies of protective personal equipment (PPEs), specifically face shields, the DOST-MIRDC initiated the mass production of these medical face shields since May 15.*