BY LESLIE ANN G. AQUINO
Contact tracers, data encoders, and occupational safety and health (OSH) inspectors.
These are some of the jobs that the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) is looking to offer to informal sector workers in the event its emergency employment program called Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers (TUPAD) is revived.
Labor Undersecretary Joji Aragon revealed this during the Laging Handa press briefing Wednesday.
“We are thinking to make this TUPAD more relevant amid the (COVID-19) pandemic,” she said.
“Under the Bayanihan 2, we will reconfigure our programs to help defeat COVID-19,” she said.
Contact tracers and data encoders, Aragon said, can help in identify COVID-19 patients as well as their close contacts while OSH inspectors can help ensure compliance of business establishments to the safety guidelines earlier released by the department.
“Our programs will be more relevant that while we assist and provide relief to workers, we also want to help in the recovery phase by having more relevant activities,” she said.
The Labor department implemented a TUPAD – Barangay Ko, Bahay Ko (BKBK) program after the imposition of the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) in Luzon.
According to DoLE, as of May, TUPAD BKBK benefited more than 300, 000 workers who were paid the minimum wage in their respective areas for 10 days of disinfection and sanitation work of their dwellings and immediate vicinity.
TUPAD is a short-term emergency employment program of the DoLE to mitigate the impact of calamities, disasters and epidemics on workers in the informal economy.
