Bill filed to protect workers displaced by AI
Sen. Erwin Tulfo has filed a bill seeking to amend the Labor Code to set clear and fair termination conditions for Filipino workers replaced by artificial intelligence.
In filing Senate Bill No. 2563, Tulfo sought to obligate employers to establish consistent guidelines for AI-related layoffs and resort to retrenchments only as a last resort.
On Sunday, Nov. 8, Tulfo released a statement on Facebook about the move, writing, "Yung technological progress di maiiwasan iyan, pero di dapat maiwan yung manggagawang Pilipino na sila lang mahirapan dahil tinanggal sila basta-basta."
In his explanatory note, Tulfo—chairperson of the Senate Committee on Social Justice, Welfare, and Development—wrote, "As companies adopt AI, employees, whose jobs become redundant, risk losing not only their employment but also their means of supporting their families."
He added that the bill proposes several requirements for employers to accomplish if they are left with no choice but to replace their workers with AI-enhanced systems.
Under Senate Bill No. 2563, companies will be allowed to lay off employees in favor of AI automation only if the implementation of AI technologies in the workplace was introduced to the workers in good faith, the adoption of these systems can be proven to reduce costs or boost efficiency, the selection criteria for employees to be retrenched are fair and reasonable, and the employer can present no other viable solution other than employee retrenchment.
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If the terminations do take place, the bill mandates the company to notify the Department of Labor and Employment at least six months in advance.
The bill also seeks to require employers to give laid-off workers a separation pay equal to at least two months' salary or at least two months' salary for every year of service, whichever is higher.
Companies will also be required to provide opportunities for reskilling and redeployment to retrenched employees.
"There must be a proactive effort to keep workers away from termination just because AI comes in," Tulfo wrote. "We are not only talking about careers here. We are concerned with livelihood and lives of the employees' families."
In 2026, multiple companies in the tech stratosphere have announced mass retrenchments due to AI. Meta announced in April that it was laying off about 10% of its workforce, roughly 8,000 employees, as it rolled out aggressive spending on AI technology, reported CNN.
In June, multinational tech company Oracle shed nearly 13% of its workforce, or about 21,000 jobs, as the firm adopted AI technologies to enhance operations, per CNBC.
According to CBS News, other companies that attributed mass job cuts to AI included Pinterest, Dow, Amazon, PayPal, cryptocurrency firm Coinbase, online career portals Indeed and Glassdoor, and HP.
Palace Press Officer Claire Castro said in a Nov. 6 press briefing that while Malacañang could not say which industries in the Philippines were most at risk of losing placements to AI, President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. urged Filipino workers to upskill and reskill in this "AI-era."
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