spot_img
27.6 C
Philippines
Friday, March 29, 2024

State workers’ wage hike on hold

- Advertisement -

The Budget department will hire a third party to study the increase in the wages of government workers for 2020 until 2022, Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno said Wednesday.

“There will be [a wage increase], but how much [the increase will be] is not yet determined,” Diokno told reporters.

The planned wage increase comes as the fourth and last tranche of the Salary Standardization Law of 2015 is yet to be implemented this year pending Congress’ approval of this year’s proposed P3.757-trillion national budget.

Diokno said the bidding for the entity that would be hired to do the study on the salary increase will be done “sometime [in the] first quarter.”

“A committee is working on it,” he said.

- Advertisement -

Asked about the reason for the three-year period for the wage adjustment, Diokno said that was what they wanted.

“I think three years is an optimal period,” he said, adding it would be hard to predict the developments beyond this period.

The increases in the state workers’ salaries are targeted to bring their level near to that of the private sector.

Meanwhile, Diokno said his department could not implement the scheduled wage increase this year because Executive Order 201, which was issued in 2016 for this purpose, “explicitly provides that we need a GAA [General Appropriations Act].

“Plus, the amount involved does not allow us that flexibility, and we don’t want to be committing errors. The best solution really is to get the budget passed.””‹

- Advertisement -

LATEST NEWS

Popular Articles