MANILA – More than 5,000 contact tracers will be deployed in five areas in the National Capital Region (NCR) under the emergency employment of the government.
The hiring of contact tracers by local government units was formally launched on Saturday after the signing of a Joint Memorandum Circular among the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), Department of the Interior and Local Government and Metro Manila Development Authority.
A total of 5,754 workers will be hired under the Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers (TUPAD) Program of DOLE.
The program has a budget of PHP280 million.
The cities of Quezon, Manila, Muntinlupa, Parañaque, and the municipality of Pateros will hire the contact tracers for three months.
They will be paid the prevailing daily NCR minimum wage of PHP537.
“This initiative will help optimize TUPAD as a mechanism that does not only provide emergency employment to our disadvantage workers but also addresses the health crisis in our country,” DOLE Secretary Silvestre Bello III said in an address after the signing of the JMC.
“This will also serve as one of our strategies to effectively respond to the changing labor market solution and to revitalize the growth of our economy,” he added. (PNA)
