OVER TWO million employees were displaced during the first five weeks of enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) on Luzon, the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) said.

The estimate took in the period from the start of the quarantine to Friday, April 17. The total has doubled from the last estimate issued on April 12, when DoLE tallied 1,048,649 workers affected by the ECQ due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

DoLE said in a statement Sunday: “Reports from DoLE regional offices showed a continued swelling of the number of displaced workers. From 79,271 establishment reports submitted as of April 24, affected workers ballooned further to 2,073,362 nationwide.”

Some 1.4 million of those workers were affected by temporary business closures. Over 687,000 employees were subject to alternative work arrangements such as reduced working days and hours; forced leave; and work-from-home.

Metro Manila accounted for the most number of displaced workers with 687,634. Other regions with the most number of displaced employees during the period were Region 3 (Central Luzon) with 281,278; Region 11 (Davao Region) with 207,789; Region 4-A (CALABARZON) with 158,646; and Region 10 (Northern Mindanao) with 106,162.

Regions with the fewest displaced workers were Region 9 (Zamboanga Peninsula) with 37,683; Region 1 (Ilocos Region) with 32,017; and Region 12 (Soccsksargen) with 27,643.

DoLE said over 90% of establishments which reported employee displacement have applied for DoLE’s COVID-19 Adjustment Measures Program (CAMP), which provides funding to employers with displaced workers directly to payrolls. The DoLE has closed the CAMP application process on April 15 after funding ran out. — Gillian M. Cortez

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