Sen. Joel Villanueva's statement on the passage of work-from-home bill in HoR

We welcome the passage of the work-from-home bill on third and final reading in the House of Representatives. This piece of legislation is an important policy that would encourage employers to allow telecommuting or the partial or total substitution of computers or telecommunication technologies for the commute to work by employees.

Aside from promoting work-life balance, the bill also seeks to address traffic congestion and its tremendous effect on the country's economy.

As the principal author and sponsor of the bill's counterpart version, Senate Bill No. 1363 or the Telecommuting Act of 2017, we expect that this measure would protect the rights of the home-based workers by ensuring that they have equal pay, leave benefits and promotion as their counterparts in the office.

We are positively hopeful that during the bicameral conference committee hearing, we would be able to reconcile the differences in the House and Senate versions and eventually produce a cohesive and strong policy that will eventually promote our workers' right to work-life balance and flexible work arrangement.