DPWH Interim Work Arrangement during the COVID-19 Pandemic

May 11, 2020

DPWH DEPARTMENT ORDER NO. 036-20

 

Pursuant to CSC Memorandum Circular No. 10, s. 2020 dated May 7, 2020, "Revised Interim Guidelines for Alternative Work Arrangements and Support Mechanisms for Workers in the Government during the Period of State of National Emergency Due to COVID-19 Pandemic," the DPWH Central Office shall implement the following Alternative Work Arrangement Guidelines during the COVID-19 Pandemic:

I. Scope and Coverage

These guidelines are applicable to all DPWH Central Office employees regardless of employment status. The Regional and District Engineering Offices are authorized to adopt interim work arrangements that are most appropriate/applicable to them subject to the prevailing community quarantine in their respective areas and in accordance with the CSC MC No. 10, series of 2020.

II. Interim Work Arrangement

1. Employees shall render twenty-four (24) hours of work in the office and sixteen (16) hours of work from home (WFH) every week, subject to conditions set forth herein.

2. Employees shall report in the office for eight (8) hours a day with a one (1) hour lunch break. Employees shall be divided into two (2) shifts as follows:

a. Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday

b. Thursday-Friday-Saturday

3. The 16-hours work from home shift shall be rendered on days that they are not scheduled to report to the office, provided as follows: CAIHTE

 

Office Schedule	Work from Home Schedule
Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday	Thursday and Friday
Thursday-Friday-Saturday	Tuesday and Wednesday

 

Complete office uniform shalt be used only on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. Civilian clothing shall be worn on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

4. The employee on WFH schedule should be available during office hours to answer concerns and inquiries when needed, through the line of communication agreed with the immediate supervisor (e.g., text message, phone call, e-mail, Messenger or Viber).

5. In anticipation of the challenges that may be encountered during the General Community Quarantine (GCQ) in going to and from the workplace, Directors may assign employees to report to the workplace in any of these three schedules:

a. 7:00 AM-4:00 PM

b 8:00 AM-5:00 PM

c. 9:00 AM-6:00 PM

6. In the exigency of the service, Directors concerned may require any of their employees working from home to report to the office in case there arise extraordinary or urgent tasks with set deadlines.

7. It shall be the responsibility of the TAS officers to monitor attendance and punctuality. They shall prepare the appropriate reports needed in the leave administration process, payroll system and other human resource processes.

8. To comply with the policy on social distancing, the use of biometric machines shall continue to be suspended until further notice. TAS officers shall record the time and attendance of employees by maintaining a logbook for said purpose, which the latter will certify.

9. Directors in the Central Office, with the approval of the Undersecretary concerned, may also adopt other alternative work arrangements that are applicable to their functions as well as their place of work provided that, only 50% of their employees shall report at the workplace at any given time and that the arrangement will not compromise the operations of their office nor prevent the delivery of the basic services. Moreover, said alternative work arrangement should not be inconsistent with CSC MC 10, series of 2020 and other pertinent guidelines.

III. General Guidelines

1. The employees' work schedule shall be approved by their respective Heads of Offices. A copy of the approved work schedule shall be submitted to the Human Resource Management Division, HRAS for records purposes.

2. The work schedule should be determined with the purpose of ensuring that the operations of the office will not be hampered. Heads of Offices may cross assign employees so that an adequate number of employees will be reporting on alternate schedules.

3. The Heads of Offices shall give priority to the preferred schedule of employees who are senior citizens, pregnant women, and persons with disabilities (PWD) as well as those with immunodeficiency, comorbidities, or other health risk.

4. At least one (1) supervisory personnel (Division Chief or Assistant Division Chief) shall be physically present in the workplace per shift to supervise employees.

5. Heads of Offices must continuously monitor the performance of their employees to make sure that the changes in the work arrangement do not adversely affect the delivery of government programs and services.

6. General services employees assigned in the maintenance of office building and facilities (e.g., plumber, electrician) whose tasks may not be performed off-site, must report to the office for five (5) days a week while observing social distancing guidelines.

7. All field personnel such as those involved in the supervision of projects and employees who are on official business cannot avail of the work from home arrangement and flexi-time work schedules.

VI. Work from Home Guidelines and Procedures

1. The immediate supervisor and the Division Chief should ensure that the daily target outputs to be assigned to the employees correspond to their actual duties and responsibilities. The tasks should be manageable and can be accomplished within the agreed hours of WFH shift. The required outputs should be clearly discussed with the employee.

2. Work from home arrangements may be allowed for the following tasks:

a. research; ATICcS

b. policy formulation/review/amendment;

c. project work, including but not limited to, drafting of proposals/project studies/training modules;

d. data encoding/processing;

e. adjudication of cases or review of cases, including legal work;

f. budget planning and forecasting;

g. recording, examination and interpretation of financial records and reports;

h. evaluation and formulation of accounting, auditing and management control systems;

i. computer programming;

j. database maintenance;

k. design work/drafting of drawing plans;

l. preparation of information materials;

m. sending/receiving e-mail;

n. HR tasks, e.g., computation of leave credits, preparation of payroll etc., as the case maybe; and

o. Other analogous tasks which require the use of a computer and the World Wide Web (Internet) for reading, encoding, printing or submission of written outputs for the review, evaluation or final presentation/assessment of the immediate supervisor, the head of office or the management.

3. In cases where the employee's regular functions do not fall under the above assignments, the Head of Office may assign other tasks or outputs of said office to the employee.

4. The Weekly Work from Home Assignment and Accomplishment Monitoring Form (Annex A) shall be used to monitor work from home assignments and accomplishments of the employee.

5. Employees are not allowed to bring original and confidential personnel documents at home for safety and data privacy purposes pursuant to Republic Act No. 10173 or the Data Privacy Act of 2012.

6. Employees are responsible in protecting confidential and proprietary information at all times and utilize them only in accordance with the requirement of the Department.

7. In case an employee on a WFH shift has an emergency and cannot accomplish the assigned outputs due to health concerns or family responsibilities, the employee should apply for appropriate leave of absence, subject to the existing leave application policies. TIADCc

8. Employees working from home must submit the agreed output/s on the deadline set, otherwise, the employee may be marked as undertime or absent. The Head of Office shall approve the number of hours to be credited as work from home based on the employee's submission of required output.

9. The procedure for the determination of work from home assignments and the monitoring of outputs shall observe the process flow outlined under Annex B hereof.

V. Effectivity

These guidelines shall be effective upon placement of the area covering the DPWH Central Office under the General Community Quarantine and for the duration of the State of National Emergency or until lifted by the President. The guidelines may be subject to revision as the need arises or should the Office of the President or the Civil Service Commission issue new rules pertinent to these matters.

For strict compliance.

(SGD.) MARK A. VILLARSecretary

ANNEX A

Weekly Work from Home Assignment and Accomplishment Monitoring Form

ANNEX B

Work from Home Process Flow

 

Activity	Person/s Responsible
1. Discuss required outputs and deadline; record in the Weekly Work from Home Assignment and Accomplishment Monitoring Form (Annex A).	Employee and Immediate Supervisor
2. Submit the agreed outputs to immediate supervisor.	Employee
3. Record the submitted outputs and date of submission in the Weekly Work from Home Assignment and Accomplishment Monitoring Form.	Employee
4. Review submitted output/s, validate the accomplishment portion of the Weekly Work from Home Agreement and Accomplishment Form and recommend the number of hours to be credited as work from home hours.	Immediate Supervisor Division Chief
5. Approve the number of hours to be credited as work from home hours.	Head of Office
6. Record the work from home Time and Attendance of employee based on the no. of hours indicated in the approved Weekly Work from Home Assignment and Accomplishment Monitoring Form.	Designated TAS Officer of the Division or Office