The Philippine Government wants to adopt new working hours and allow employees to work from home on Fridays to conserve energy costs, Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno said.
Adopting work hours from 7 AM to 4 PM and limiting air conditioning temperatures in the office to 25 degrees celsius are among the recommendations made by economic managers during a meeting at Malacanang to address high energy costs in the country.
Diokno said that the economic team proposed creating an Energy Conservation Plan – focusing on the demand side.
The finance official said that “we cannot influence the supply side… the price of gasoline in the world market, but we can start conserving.”
The Department of Energy (DOE), will be the first to enforce the 7 AM-4 PM work hours and the Friday work-from-home set-up. Diokno said that should the experiment succeed, “it can be adopted by other agencies.”
Back in 2022, the National Economic and Development Authority proposed a four-day work week – with increased hours of duty per day – to conserve energy.