P355M in Limbo: SSS Targets Over 1K Employers for Unremitted Dues

SSS has sent a notice to over 1,200 businesses throughout the country, requesting payment of over P335 million in overdue payments. Nearly 19,000 workers had their social security benefits compromised by these overdue accounts, according to a statement released Tuesday by the SSS.

“The My.SSS Portal, accessible from any smartphone, has made it very easy for our members to verify whether their SSS contribution record has been updated. He emphasized the need of promptly reporting any suspicions of non-committal behavior by employers to the SSS Branch Office for investigation.

Paying Dues: An Urgent Must

“Failure to remit SSS premiums is a punishable offense that contravenes Republic Act No. 11199,” he said.

According to Voltaire P. Agas, the Executive Vice President for Branch Operations Sector of SSS, employers who do not register their employees or fail to deduct and remit their contributions to SSS will be subject to a penalty of P5,000 to P20,000 and may be imprisoned for a period of six years and one day to 12 years.

“Employers who have received the violation notices are granted a 15-day period to liaise with their corresponding servicing SSS Branch Office and resolve their contribution delinquencies. Failure to take action within this timeframe will result in SSS initiating legal proceedings against them,” he further said.

How SSS will mitigate this risk moving forward

Companies who have failed to meet their legal responsibility to their workers are the targets of the restraining orders. A reminder of their commitment, we are issuing orders for them to pay and comply,” said Nancy Umoso, chief of the SSS Baguio branch.

Umoso said that SSS executes RACE every month, with a minimum goal of five organizations identified as having breached their duties in the system. The speaker emphasized that the event happening today was particularly important since tomorrow is Labor Day.

This city is home to eight of the total enterprises that have been given compliance orders. About 236 people work for these businesses, and they will all reap the rewards of SSS regulation compliance. From the eight businesses—a restaurant, a laundry, a construction company, a veterinary clinic, and hotels—the SSS expects to earn roughly PHP9.72 million in dues.

Umoso said that the purpose of implementing RACE is to provide education to both employers and workers on the compulsory SSS membership.

In addition to RACE, SSS has implemented various initiatives to register and engage private sector companies and employees. These include the establishment of e-centers in villages, the deployment of e-Wheels or mobile SSS registration booths, the organization of Bookkeepers and Employers’ Day, and the implementation of KaSSSangga, which caters to job order (JO) and contract of service (COS) employees in the government sector.