Guidelines for the Implementation of the Four-Day Workweek in the First and Second Level Courts during the Period of State of Public Health Emergency Due to COVID-19 Pandemic

November 27, 2020

OCA CIRCULAR NO. 190-2020

 

In compliance with Administrative Circular No. 62-2020 dated 24 November 2020, the following are the Guidelines for the Implementation of the Four-day Workweek in the First and Second Level Courts during the Period of State of Public Health Emergency Due to COVID-19 Pandemic:

1. All courts shall be physically opened from Monday to Friday and operate with not less than eighty percent (80%) of their court personnel;

2. All judges and court personnel shall render forty (40) hours of work a week;

3. The workweek schedule of the court employees shall be compressed to four (4) days a week, with fixed office hours from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., for a total of ten (10) hours a day or forty (40) hours a week;

4. The Executive/Presiding Judges shall electronically submit the scanned copy of their monthly four-day workweek schedules for the preceding month within the first five (5) days of the succeeding month to the Employees Leave Division, Office of Administrative Services, OCA, through the email addresses of the processors-in-charge of the area, as indicated in OCA Circular No. 128-2020. No hardcopies will be accepted;

5. Subject to the discretion of the Executive/Presiding Judge, new work schedules and the supposed rest day or day off may be changed or modified, upon prior notice to the personnel;

6. The rendition of overtime services and the flexible time schedules are both suspended in the meantime;

7. In case of absences during the scheduled workday, the deduction shall be equivalent to 1.25 days considering that there are ten (10) working hours per day;

8. In case a regular holiday falls within the scheduled workday of the personnel, the required 40-hour workweek shall be considered as complied with;

9. Courts shall no longer operate under a skeleton-staff work arrangement as this has been rendered inoperative by the implementation of the four-day workweek schedule. No work-from-home arrangement concerning Judges and court personnel shall be allowed, except upon prior clearance from the OCA, and under exceptional circumstances, or unless the Judge or court personnel is on rest day or day off;

10. Judges may also adopt a four-day workweek schedule, provided their rest day or day off will NOT be on a Friday when "hearings on (litigious) motions, arraignment and pretrial, and promulgation of decisions shall be held," pursuant to the provisions of the Revised Guidelines for Continuous Trial of Criminal Cases, and the 2019 Amendments to the 1997 Rules of Civil Procedure. During their rest day or day off, Judges may preside over videoconferencing hearings from home, without need of prior clearance from the OCA, and act on urgent matters pending before the court;

11. Executive Judges of multi-sala courts shall implement these Guidelines in the Offices of the Clerk of Court (OCCs). Should there be pressing or urgent matters in the OCCs that need the attention of the Executive Judges, they shall address these even during their scheduled rest day or day off, as far as practicable.

This Circular shall take effect on 1 December 2020.

FOR STRICT COMPLIANCE.

(SGD.) JOSE MIDAS P. MARQUEZCourt Administrator