Lenten Holiday

Happy Easter!

If you work in a Call Center here in the Philippines, you have to work even on Philippine Holidays.  In contrast to other industries where employees enjoy Holiday vacation leave.  In a Call Center, you are oblige to report for work if it is not your day off or you are not on vacation leave.  Call center employees perk working on a Holiday, is the mandated overtime pay by Philippine Labor Law. To answer some of my customers’ questions, we get paid in Philippine Pesos, the Philippine currency, not Canadian Dollars.

For regular Philippine Holiday, if an employee has no work, he will be paid 100 percent of his salary for that day. If he works, he gets 200 percent for the first eight hours of work, plus 30 percent in excess of eight hours.  On Special Non Working Holiday, if an employee has no work, he does not get paid.  If he does, he will be paid 100 percent of his salary for that day, plus 30 percent for the first eight hours. In excess of eight hours, an employee gets additional 30 percent. 

Maundy Thursday and Good Friday are our Regular Holidays. Black Saturday is Special Non-Working Holiday.  Some of my office mates who have work schedule have wide grin on their face.  Some opted to work overtime. Me, I would rather stay home. My vacation leave was approved for Maundy Thursday. Day off on Good Friday and Black Saturday. I am done with my financial obligations to my family members.  I now own my salary, so be it.  For those who opted not to work, they visited their relatives in the provinces.  As a result most drivers in Metro Manila were rejoicing. No traffic jam!

While most car owners were rejoicing, not too good for those who reported for work.  Most public utility vehicles were also on Holiday.  Most of my office mates have to endure long wait to get a ride. Some took a cab to go home enduring higher transport fare.  One of my friends took this photo of a deserted street in one of our business districts.  On regular working days public and private vehicles dominate this place.  At least the place enjoyed fresh air for lack of pollutants this Lenten Holiday.