Local wine brand Basi del Diablo will be giving the 13th month pay of its workers early in light of the COVID-19 threat, according to Salucop Group CEO Sigrid Salucop. While the Ilocano brand is only a small wine producer and only has a handful of workers, the company deems the move as “necessary in these trying times”. The workers’ 13th month pay will be wired to their accounts on Thursday, 19th March, on top of their pay for this month.

“This is the right thing to do. I know though that we can’t set the trend since we are a small company but I am wishing that anyone with a business will follow suit if such a move is within their means. This is easy for us because we maintain a very small team in our manufacturing plant as most of the processing done are done by machines,” Salucop says.

“Our employees are like family to us and we would like to make sure that they have enough so that they can afford to stay home. My worst fear is having them looking for extra work during the enhanced community quarantine, putting themselves and their families at risk. This scenario will put the whole community at risk, too. No one wants that,” she adds.