INFORMAL workers displaced by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic have six days to apply as contact tracers beginning this Saturday, according to the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).
In a virtual press briefing, Karina Perida-Trayvilla, director of the Bureau of Workers with Special Concerns (BWSC), said the application is open for the Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers (TUPAD).
“Application will open on Saturday and will be until April 22 only. It will be online through their respective local government units, particularly the Public Employment Service Offices (PESOs),” said Trayvilla, adding the number of persons to be hired will be determined by the city or municipal government.
She said the hiring “will be based on the ratio of contact tracers vis a vis the number of population of the LGU.”
Trayvilla said that for now, the application is limited to informal workers who are high school graduates from the National Capital Region.
The labor official said 4,754 informal sector workers are being eyed for hiring as contact tracers under DOLE’s emergency employment program. The worker-beneficiaries will be trained and deployed for 90 days.
“After recruitment, LGUs can immediately start the training of contact tracers and we can start deployment as early as April 26,” said Trayvilla.
TUPAD beneficiaries are set to be given salaries with a daily wage rate in the NCR equivalent to P537.
Interior undersecretary Bernardo Florece said more than 2,000 persons will be initially hired for deployment to Metro Manila to strengthen the government’s contract tracing efforts of individuals who have been exposed to COVID-19 patients.
Florece said the DILG currently has 10,097 contact tracers. With DOLE’s 4,754 TUPAD contract tracers, he said they would need 2,149 more, for a total of 17,000 contact tracers, to reach the desirable 1:800 ratio.
Florece said in the past, they only hired college graduates or those who reached at least second year of college but they have lowered the qualification to high school graduates, especially those who have work experience.
“We lowered the qualification to high school graduates because the target beneficiaries are those from the informal sector, workers in Metro Manila. But of course, we prefer those with relevant experience, those who have worked as insurance agents,” he said. — With Jocelyn Montemayor
