A CABINET meeting on Monday will make a decision on the proposed four-day workweek, said presidential communications operations office secretary, Martin Andanar.
According to reports in Manila Times, Andanar said President Rodrigo Duterte was likely to approve the proposal.
He said Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez 3rd recommended the shorter workweek, and the President went by the Cabinet's economic cluster's decision because that is their expertise.
Reducing the number of work days is one of the measures seen by the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) to soften the impact of rising fuel prices.
Calls to scrap the excise tax on fuel were turned down by the economic cluster, which warned that doing so would deprive additional services and benefits for the public of much-needed funding.
Under the proposal, the usual five-day, eight-hour workweek will be reduced to four days, each with 10 working hours.
The move will also help cut power generation, NEDA Secretary Karl Kendrick Chua said.
With the lifting of Covid-19 restrictions, people who lost their jobs because of the series of lockdowns are getting employed again.
On Friday, Malacañang welcomed the results of the Philippine Statistics Authority's January Labour Force Survey that showed that the number of unemployed had dropped to 2.93 million, lower by 1.04 million than the figure a year ago.
Andanar attributed the improving employment picture to the easing of pandemic protocols, with more parts of the country shifting down to Alert Level 1.
He said the shift has allowed more businesses to resume operations.
The government's economic managers have estimated there were 170,000 less unemployed since the alert levels were downgraded, Andanar said.
He said the government "will continue to provide targeted relief for the transport and agriculture sectors and unconditional cash transfers for the bottom 50 percent of households amid inflationary pressures."
The National Capital Region or Metro Manila and 47 other areas are under Alert Level 1 until March 31.