The Civil Service Commission (CSC) has come up with “clearer” guidelines for the implementation of a four-day compressed workweek, its top official said on Thursday.
The updates on the Flexible Work Arrangement (FWA) policy align with efforts to modernize public sector work, promote employee well-being, and maintain service excellence, CSC Chairman Marilyn Yap said.
“The amendments provide government agencies with greater flexibility in organizing work schedules that benefit civil servants while ensuring that public services remain accessible to citizens,” Yap stressed.
According to the commission, government agencies can now allow employees to condense the mandatory 40-hour workweek into four days.
“Agencies have the flexibility to set their own daily hours and designate the extra day off, provided employees still complete 40 hours a week and public services remain fully available from Monday to Friday,” Yap said.
This arrangement also extends to frontline and on-site staff, subject to agency approval and the guarantee that face-to-face services will not suffer.
The CSC said civil servants will continue to earn the standard monthly leave accruals of 1.25 days each for vacation and sick leave.
However, taking a day off under this schedule will deduct 1.25 leave credits per day, reverting to the usual one credit per day only if the agency returns to a standard eight-hour shift, the CSC, the central personnel agency of the government, it said.
Other special leaves, such as wellness leave and special privilege leave, can still be used on a per-day basis without any reduction in benefits.
The CSC said it likewise established clear guidelines for when holidays or unexpected work suspensions overlap with the compressed schedule in order to prevent confusion
“If a holiday or suspension falls on a scheduled 10-hour workday, the hours are considered fully served, and employees do not need to make them up except for 24/7 essential frontline skeleton forces, the top CSC official said.
Yap said that if a disruption lands on an employee’s designated day-off, the remaining workdays for that week temporarily revert to the standard eight-hour schedule.
