#work from anywhere

With the Philippine government currently pursuing the shift of business process outsourcing (BPO) firms to implement 100 percent work-from-home (WFH) schemes, certain trends in the industry are also brought to fore. Accommodating calls to extend the prevailing WFH setup, however, the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) has issued letters of authority to permit their registered business enterprises (RBEs) to implement a hybrid setup (up to 30 percent work-from-home) until September 12 of this year, while still retaining their fiscal incentives. 026-22, which was issued on September 14, RBEs which continued to have a hybrid setup (30 percent work-from-home) would be allowed to remain so until December 31, 2022. Another significant decision reflected here involved the transfer of RBEs in the BPO sector to the Board of Investments (BOI) if they seek to implement 100 percent work-from-home schemes. To recall, the FIRB decided via Resolution 19-21 to allow the hybrid work scheme only until March 31, 2022, with work-from-home (WFH) or work-from-anywhere (WFX) available for up to 90 percent of BPO workers. "The decision of IT-BPM (IT-Business Process Management) RBEs (registered business enterprises) to forego their income tax perks is a difficult interim measure to address the needs of their employees and meet the demand of clients who prefer WFH (work from home)/hybrid work arrangements," IBPAP said in a recent statement. Read more in our articles including "Full work-from-home setup for BPOs: Will it cause a provincial shift?" and "Gov't says tax incentives 'not that important' for BPOs as RTO mandate remains".