An important aspect of ensuring the physical safety of our employees is ensuring both their safe return home and their efficient work-from-home arrangements. Even before the national government declared a lockdown during the second week of March 2020, EDC already declared a work-from-home arrangement for all employees whose work did not require them to be physically present in the project sites and power generation facilities.  

However, for employees whose physical presence is vital to our continued power generation operations, we undertook extraordinary measures to ensure their health and safety on-site as they performed their duties. These health and safety measures applied to our employees, partners, and contractors working in our geothermal facilities in Bicol, Negros, Leyte, and North Cotabato, as well as our combined solar and wind power farm in Ilocos Norte and our hydroelectric power plant in Nueva Ecija. 

Amid the community quarantines, many of our employees got stranded in different project sites. As such, EDC worked towards bringing them home safely and securely so that they can be reunited with their families. As early as April 2020, we formed a dedicated task force to plan and execute the safe homecoming of our stranded employees. 

In all, our work-from-home arrangements covered 1,200 employees, effectively mitigating their risk of exposure to the virus by eliminating the need to leave their homes just to perform their work functions. To date, EDC continues to enjoy zero reported cases of COVID-19 infection or exposure amongst our employees on site.

Our return-to-home operation, on the other hand, safely and successfully repatriated 54 employees and contractors to their respective residences in Metro Manila and their respective hometowns in Bulacan, Batangas, and Ilocos Sur. Before being flown home, these employees endured being stranded for more than 70 days, all while continuing to work while being sheltered-in-place in our project sites when the strict enhanced community quarantine was first implemented in Metro Manila and other parts of the country at the start of the pandemic.

Repurposed Employee Benefits. To better address the emerging and immediate needs of our employees during the COVID-19 pandemic, our Human Resources Management Group (HRMG) reviewed our existing employee benefits and allowances. 

This allowed employee allowances to be repurposed for the following needs, namely: (1) for the purchase of personal healthcare, such as personal protective equipment (PPE), medicine, and vaccines; (2) for the upgrade of Internet plans, to ensure better and longer access to Internet services; (3) for telecommunication charges related to the use of mobile phones; (4) for the purchase of ergonomic equipment and furniture, to ensure better work-from-home conditions; and (5) even for philanthropic actions, such as for personal donations to their respective communities or charitable institutions of choice.

All our 1,526 employees benefited from these repurposed allowances. Of this number, 558 employees who were in the supervisory level and above received transportation expense allowance and supervisor allowance, both of which were disbursed in advance and allowed for use in COVID-related needs. Specific employee benefits, such as uniform allowance and outpatient medical benefits, were also disbursed for better use in COVID-related expenses. 

Special COVID-19 Assistance. Recognizing the various difficulties our employees faced as they continued to work amid the pandemic, we also provided additional forms of assistance specific to the challenges posed by the pandemic. For example, EDC provided additional allowances to employees and contractors required to shelter-in-place in our facilities for an extended period as they ensured the continued operations of our power plants. EDC also provided a total of PHP238 million in additional COVID-19 Resiliency Assistance, which benefitted 1,444 employees across the company.

Civic engagement has always been a hallmark of a highly engaged workforce. As such, even during an unprecedented crisis, our employees continued to look beyond themselves and responded to the needs of communities beset by the negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“Let us consider sharing what we have,” says Richard B. Tantoco, EDC President and COO. “Here lies an opportunity for us to help. We must stand solidly with so many who are going hungry at this time.”

Indeed, while EDC as an organization was well-prepared to face this period of disruption, we also recognize that not all businesses, organizations, and communities have the same privilege. For one, work suspensions due to the community quarantines, while ensuring safety from the virus, means our contractors, workers, and other daily-wage earners will be hit hard and lose their much-needed livelihood.

To extend much-needed support to healthcare workers and families affected by the quarantine and lockdown, EDC employees launched a fundraising campaign, Tindog Pilipinas, Dili Mo Namo Pasagdan (“Rise Philippines, We Will Not Let You Down”). The campaign generated donations that would provide over PHP200,000 worth of PPEs and food packs to healthcare frontliners in hospitals not only in Metro Manila but even in other parts of the country. All donations were coursed through Franco’s Friends and the Kaya Natin Movement.

EDC employees, likewise, contributed to the Pantawid ng Pag-ibig campaign of ABS-CBN, which provides food to families who can’t make a living due to the quarantine in place. The total amount of donations pooled by the employees of EDC has reached PHP1.8 million. This is in addition to the PHP100 million pledged by its mother company, First Philippine Holdings (FPH), to the Pantawid ng Pag-ibig campaign. The Lopez Group donated another PHP100 million to the Department of Transportation (DOT) to aid in their efforts to repatriate overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) safely.

In addition, our on-site employees pooled together their own personal funds to help the communities that were affected in their areas. Our Negros facility, for instance, was able to raise PHP175,000 and PHP82,500 through the Tabang Dumaguete and Shoulder-to-Shoulder internal fundraising campaigns, respectively. The donation drives benefited marginalized sectors, medical frontliners, and the daily wage workers of contractors in their facilities to supplement their family’s needs. 

Meanwhile, the Ladies’ Club in our Leyte geothermal facility has extended its assistance to more than 475 individuals affected by the pandemic by providing food packages and personal protective equipment (PPE). The facility’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Team encouraged the Lim-ao Integrated Farmers for Empowerment (LIFE) cooperative to temporarily shift from their operations farming and bags production to making face masks for local residents and barangay health workers. This is to aid in the shortage of face masks that were badly needed by our frontliners at the onset of the pandemic.  EDC placed an initial order of 1,000 masks and, eventually, other local companies, hospitals, and even the Rotary Club of Ormoc have ordered not only masks but even other PPEs from the farmers’ cooperative.

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic inevitably presented a challenge to the continued implementation of our Leaders Coaching Leaders (LCL) Program. However, with the help of virtual conferencing technology, participants were able to adjust quickly and proceeded with the regular sessions under the LCL Program.

First rolled out in 2018 in response to a major organizational change, the six-month LCL Program aims to train supervisors and senior managers in their new leadership roles. Through coaching sessions, the LCL Program imbues EDC’s “APC” values to the participants. APC stands for Accountability, Performance Orientation, and Collaboration, all of which are values and behaviors deemed critical to organizational transformation.    

The LCL Program is a unique, cost-effective, and time-efficient approach to meeting our goals and objectives in terms of internal communications, employee engagement, and skills training. The “leaders coaching leaders” approach, also known as group coaching, is a proven strategy to not only strengthen management capabilities, but also create a desired organizational culture and transformation through a series of pass-on training. 

The LCL Program has remarkably improved the culture of EDC, enhancing work efficiency as well as improving interpersonal relationships all through coaching. The first batch of nine leaders pioneered the LCL Program, which, in turn, produced 28 internal coaches for Batch 2. These second-generation coaches are now coaching 108 new internal coaches for Batch 3. By the end of 2020, EDC had a total of 156 internal coaches across the organization.  

The challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, coupled with the added strain of new work arrangements, are indeed taking a toll on the overall mental health of our employees. Recognizing this new lived reality, EDC doubled its efforts towards taking care of its employees’ mental and emotional well-being. 

We engaged with MyGolana, a digital healthcare company based in the United States, to support the mental health needs of our employees. MyGolana, which started as a counseling organization, was founded to provide accessible and affordable counseling solutions for people struggling with their mental health. As a public health service, MyGolana has specifically focused on digital and online services to widen its reach and impact. 

As our mental health provider, MyGolana offers hotline and counseling sessions for all our employees. The service also added Cebuano-speaking associates for a more inclusive approach, especially for our employees based in Visayas and Mindanao. Experts and partners from MyGolana also conducted several online learning sessions which tackled a wide array of topics for our employees, such as Making WFH Work, Love Languages, Managing Personal Energy, and Understanding Anxiety and Depression, among other topics. 

Through MyGolana, we were also able to offer free online counseling sessions for employees who felt the need to avail of such services to cope with the disruption brought about by the pandemic. Employees were able to select a counselor of their choice and seek professional help from the comforts of their homes. 

Knowing that existing contracts for Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBAs) will expire by December 31, 2019, the management of EDC and its ten recognized unions were already gearing up for negotiations come early January 2020. However, nobody was geared up for the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic at around the same time. 

In the spirit of organizational agility, EDC and its ten recognized unions had to negotiate, conclude, and sign the agreements all via digital platforms. A total of four whole-day Zoom meetings were carried out during this historic occasion, which was attended by 30 participants, namely: 10 representatives from EDC management, 10 union presidents, and 10 union representatives. The negotiations were then concluded with an online signing ceremony. 

Collectively, the ten recognized unions were able to secure economic and employee benefits for the welfare of 970 employees who are part of the bargaining units. The conclusion of these agreements is a testament to the strong ties and amiable industrial relations between EDC and its workers’ associations. This is also the first time in the history of local labor relations where agreements were negotiated, concluded, and signed virtually.  

More importantly, this is the first time that all ten recognized workers’ unions and employee associations negotiated their terms as a single, unified bargaining panel. This feat would not have been possible if industrial relations between EDC and the workers’ associations were not founded on mutual trust and respect, primarily driven by the common goal of providing reliable energy during a trying time for our country. 

UPHOLDING OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY 

While EDC’s commitment to the health and safety of its employees has always been integral to its operations, it has never been more pronounced as in 2020, when the health and safety of all our employees was compromised by the invisible threat of COVID-19. As such, our Occupational Health and Medical Services (OHMS) Team had to act fast, collaborate well with other groups, and then pivot its programmed activities several times to better respond to emerging and imminent needs related to the pandemic.

Proactive Health Response Amid the Pandemic 

With the Taal Volcano eruption opening the year, which impacted Batangas, Cavite, Metro Manila, and nearby locations, we immediately distributed face masks to all our Head Office-based employees. This was coupled with an intensive information drive on how to use the masks properly, and how to keep safe and healthy amidst continuing volcanic activities.

At the first instance that the novel coronavirus was discovered to be transmissible among humans, EDC convened a Corporate Incident Management Team to enforce proactive preventative measures to protect employees from the risk of COVID-19. While these measures had been put in place as early as February 2020, we continuously improve and adjust our policies and protocols as the situation unfolds and as more robust scientific information becomes available.  

As both the company and its employees are relatively new to the work-from-home and shelter-in-place arrangements, we made sure that medical services will continue to be available to all our employees despite the new work setups. Consultations with doctors and dentists were made available via a teleconsulting platform and have even been extended to our employees’ dependents.

Additionally, we also made sure that the clinics and teams which support our continued operations at the project sites have sufficient medical supplies. As such, we regularly shipped medical equipment and infirmary supplies such as PPEs, surgical and N95 masks, thermometers, and medicines, among others. Recognizing the scarcity of masks, especially during the early part of the pandemic, EDC facilitated the distribution of face masks to all its employees across the country.

To further strengthen our employees’ level of protection, we also pushed through with our vaccination program. Apart from the usual flu vaccines given annually, we also provided pneumococcal vaccines, both of which were provided for free to all our employees. For the vaccination program, we conducted both pick-up and house-to-house vaccinations to ensure that our employees and their families do not get exposed to risks during the administration of the vaccines. The vaccination program was also extended to our employees’ dependents for a lower negotiated rate compared to suggested retail prices.

To help our employees monitor their health status while minimizing contact, risk, and exposure, we also explored the delivery of our fleetwide Annual Health Examination (AHE) through drive-thru and home services. For employees who needed to go to an actual clinic or hospital, we checked our accredited health facilities across the country to ensure that they have COVID-prevention protocols in place. In cases where an employee or their dependent has been exposed to or afflicted with community-acquired COVID-19, we also fully supported them by referring them to testing and treatment facilities until their complete recovery.

Mindful of their current home office setups, we also offered to provide ergonomic chairs and computer accessories to our employees who were working from home. We also facilitated the pilot run of a fleetwide wellness program for Control Room personnel who were sheltered-in-place in our project sites. The program aims to identify and address various ergonomic issues in the workplace, as well as aspects of well-being such as nutrition, mental health, and lifestyle. If successful, the wellness program will be rolled out fleetwide to the rest of our employees.

The OHMS Team, as our subject matter experts on health, has also taken a critical role in strengthening our partnerships with local governments and health facilities. This includes working with the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Team and the local governments to set up RT-PCR testing laboratories in the communities where EDC’s project sites are located. Members of the OHMS Team continue to hone their knowledge and skills in various areas related to the curtailment of the COVID-19 pandemic, such as contact tracing and workplace infection management.