Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, government workers were forced to work from home. Here are other alternative work arrangements in the public sector in accordance with MC No. 10, s. 2020.

1. Alternative Work
Arrangements in the
Civil Service
Atty. Daisy Punzalan Bragais
Director III/Asst. Regional Director
Civil Service Commission RO V

2. Pre-COVID-19

3. Declaration of
State of Public
Health
Emergency
Proclamation No. 922
March 8, 2020

4. Enhanced
Community
Quarantine
(ECQ)
COVID-19
Pandemic

5. Work from Home (WFH)

6. Post ECQ
NEW normal

7. Alternative
Work
Arrangement
(AWA)

8. Retroactive
effectivity
March 16, 2020

9. During the
duration of
State of
National
Emergency

10. Work-from-Home
Skeleton Workforce
Four-day (Compressed)
Workweek
Staggered Working Hours
Other AWA

11. Work-from-Home
an output-oriented work
arrangement that authorizes the
worker to produce outputs/results
and accomplishments outside of
the office

12. Parameters

13. shall be adopted in
areas under ECQ

14. may be adopted in
areas under GCQ
Physical/social
distancing –
required in the
workplace
Reduced capacity
of public
transportation

15. Certain employees to
be placed under WFH

16. Below 21 & 60 years old
and above
With immunodeficiency
Comorbidities or other
health risk
Pregnant women
Those who reside with
the aforementioned

17. EXCEPT
When their services are
indispensable under the
circumstances
OR
When office work is permitted

18. o Research
o Policy
formulation/review/
amendment
o Project work, including
but not limited to,
drafting of
proposals/project
studies/ training
modules
o Data
encoding/processing

19. o adjudication of cases
or review of cases,
including legal work
o budget planning and
forecasting
o recording,
examination and
interpretation of
financial records and
reports

20. o evaluation and
formulation of
accounting, auditing
and management
control systems
o computer programming
o database maintenance
o design work/drafting of
drawing plans

21. o preparation of
information materials
o sending/receiving e-
mail
o HR tasks, e.g.
computation of leave
credits, preparation of
payroll etc., as the case
maybe

22. o other analogous tasks
which require the use of
a computer and the
World Wide Web
(Internet)

23. Responsibilities in
WFH arrangement
Agency Head

24. The employees are
given tasks to be
performed to the full
extent possible in
terms of man-days per
work week.

25. Employees under
work-from-home shall
make themselves
available during the
work hours that they
are at home.

26. The employees have
access to or is provided
with any
communication
equipment or facilities.

27. Appropriate measures such
as Pledge of Confidentiality
of Information, Data
encryptions, etc. are in place
to ensure protection of data
used and processed by the
employees.

28. The confidential and
proprietary
information are
protected and secured
at all times.

29. Skeleton Workforce
work arrangement where a
minimum number of employees
is required to man the office to
render service when full staffing
is not possible

30. Parameters

31. may be allowed
under ECQ unless a
different operational
capacity is provided

32. Agencies under the
GCQ shall use
skeleton workforce
as one of its
alternative work
arrangements

33. In case the duty or work
schedule of an employee
assigned as a skeleton
workforce falls on a regular
holiday, the required 40-
hour workweek shall be
considered as complied.
However, if the employee
is required to report, he or
she should be entitled to
additional compensation
like overtime or
compensatory time off
(CTO), among others.

34. The employees
assigned as skeleton
workforce shall be
entitled to Hazard
Pay on top of the
Compensatory Time
Off or Overtime Pay,
as well as other
applicable
allowances, subject to
accounting and
auditing rules and
regulations.

35. Four-day (Compressed)
Workweek
work arrangement whereby
the employees’ workweek is
compressed to four (4) days
each week

36. Parameters

37. may be used as one of the
alternative work arrangements in
areas placed under GCQ which
are identified either as moderate-
and low-risk in the spread of
COVID-19.

38. The 4-day workweek may
be observed as follows:
o Monday to Thursday
o Tuesday to Friday
o Monday to Tuesday
and
o Thursday to Friday
o or a combination of the
4-day workdays to
ensure that there are
employees reporting
the whole workweek.

39. In case a regular holiday
falls within the scheduled
workweek of the
employee, the required
40-hour workweek shall
be considered as
COMPLIED

40. EXCEPTemployees
of agencies who are
required to provide
skeleton force in health
emergency frontline
services, border control
and other critical services
that is required to
operate on a 24/7 work
schedule

41. Staggered Working Hours
work arrangement applicable
to offices/agencies that
observe work shifting or
flexible working time

42. Parameters

43. The agency shall strategize
the adoption of the
staggered working hours of
employees to limit the
number of officials and
employees in an office at
any given time.
Example:
o 7:00 a.m. to 1:00 pm
o 1:00 pm to 7:00 pm.

44. The agency head, in
consultation with the
employees, shall prepare the
staggered work schedule in
light of the present
situation.

45. The agency head shall
ensure that the employees
remain flexible in making
themselves available for
work duties outside of
core hours if required.

46. Other Alternative Work
Arrangements
work arrangements consisting of a
combination of the 4 work arrangements or
other work arrangements
appropriate/applicable to the agency
subject to the prevailing community
quarantine in the area where the agency is
located and the nature of work/job
performed by the employee/s

47. Parameters

48. Appropriate/
applicable to
their functions
and place of
work

49. combination of
the enumerated
work
arrangements or
a combination
with the other
work
arrangements
adopted

50. General
Guidelines

51. Adopted only for the
duration of the State of
National Emergency or
until lifted by the
President

52. agency head shall give
priority to the preferred
schedule of employees who
are senior citizens, pregnant
women, and persons with
disabilities (PWD)

53. disinfection or decontamination
of buildings, facilities and
vehicles
conduct of health status survey
modification of workplace layout
Prior to resumption of office
operations

54. Observance of physical
distancing in the office

55. Wearing of face masks
Taking of body temperature
Presence of sanitation
stations
Minimum Health Standard
Protocol

56. Use of
videoconferencing/
teleconferencing in
meetings

57. Adoption of monitoring
mechanism
e.g. submission of
daily/weekly
accomplishment report/s

58. Agencies shall
formulate internal
rules governing
the AWA adopted
and implemented

59. Agencies to submit
a report on the
implementation of
AWA to CSC ROs

60. Support
Mechanisms

61. Health/psychosocial
interventions
Appropriate PPE
Reduced working hours, as
authorized by the President

62. Provision for reasonable
transportation facilities &
housing quarters interventions
Reasonable expenses
defrayed by the agency
Other monetary & forms of
incentives allowed

64. Credits
All images were taken
from the internet