Department of Labor and Employment(DOLE)

Good day! We respectfully request clarifications from your office regarding implementation of DOLE Labor Advisory No. 06, Series of 2020 - Guidelines on the Payment of Final Pay and Issuance of Certificate of Employment - particularly on the following matters related to the release of final pay and clearance procedure: 1. Timeline for releasing of final pay > As per labor advisory no 06-20, the final pay must be released within 30 calendar days from the date of separation. >May we confirm whether the 30 day counting should start from the employees last day of work or from the completion of clearance? 2. Clearance as pre-requisite >Is the completion of clearance a mandatory pre requisite before the release of final pay? >If the employee fails to complete the clearance within 30 days, can employer withhold the entire final pay or only the value equivalent to the unreturned property or obligation? 3. Responsibility in routing clearance > Whos primarily responsible for initiating and routing the clearance process - the employer or the employee? >Should the clearance routing be started before employees last day or can it validly commence after the last day of employment?4 4. Use of clearance to delay final pay >Several HR practitioners interpret that clearance may not be used to delay final pay beyond 30 days. May we kindly request the offical DOLE interpretation or advisory confirming whether clearance cannot be used to extend the release of final pay beyond 30 days period stated in Labor Advisory No. 06-? 5. Handling Non Compliant Employee >In case an employee goes AWOL or fails to return company property, what the proper steps the employer should take to remain compliant with DOLE guidelines while protecting the company;s interest? We seek your guidance so we may align our organizations policy with DOLE standards and ensure lawful and timely processing of separated employees final pay. Thank you very much .

Good day. Can I make a follow-up on this matter?