ECC cuts penalty on late SSS and GSIS remittances

THE Employees’ Compensation Commission (ECC) has cut by one point the monthly penalty on employers who fail to remit their workers’ pension contributions to 2%.

The changes are in keeping with the penal provisions of the law, Labor Secretary Silvestre H. Bello who heads the ECC board, said in a statement yesterday.

The new rates will cover both government workers under the Government Service Insurance System and private employees under the Social Security System, he said.

Under the Social Service Act of 2018, employers who fail to remit workers’ contributions on time must pay a penalty equivalent to 2% of the unpaid contribution a month. The GSIS Act of 1997 provides that the penalty should not be less than 2%.

“By revising the penalty for unpaid contributions and setting the penalty at a uniform rate with SSS and GSIS, the commission, with its implementing agencies, the SSS and the GSIS can better facilitate the implementation of its ECC Program,” ECC Executive Director Stella Zipagan-Banawis said in the same statement. — Charmaine A. Tadalan