Excerpt

The country’s largest economic zone is retreating in its fight to have work-from-home arrangements extended for call center employees in its geographical boundaries, and is leaving the fate of a proposed “hybrid” setup in the hands of the next president.

Starting April 1, Information Technology Business Process Management (IT-BPM) firms registered with the Philippine Economic and Zone Authority (PEZA) will resume their “regular” setup requiring 70% of total workforce to report to the office, while the remaining 30% can work remotely anywhere.

This would mark the end of a reprieve that the government extended to IT-BPM companies operating in the country’s ecozones, which grant tax incentives to locators. At the onset of the pandemic in 2020, these companies were allowed to implement remote work for 90% of their employees without losing their precious tax breaks in a bid to minimize disruptions caused by hard lockdowns.

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