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Friday, March 29, 2024

Solon wants night differential pay for government workers

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Senator Antonio Trillanes IV on Sunday urged his colleagues to pass a bill granting night shift differential pay to government employees, including employees of government-owned or -controlled corporations.

He said work at night is more strenuous than work done during the day, hence, the former deserves greater compensation. 

“It is a universal fact that the normal work is performed during the day and the work done at night is exceptional and justified only on grounds of inevitable necessity,” he said.

“Hygienic, medical, moral, cultural, and socio-biological reasons, moreover, show that night work entails various inconveniences and when there is no alternative but to perform it, it is only just that the laborer should earn greater salary than the ordinary work so as to compensate the laborer to some extent for the inconvenience,” added Trillanes, who heads the Senate Committee on Civil Service.

Trillanes said there are government employees whose regular working hours fall between 10:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. of the next day, such as personnel in the Bureau of Immigration and uniformed personnel in the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police. 

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He said the case of BI employees is more lamentable because of their lack of compensation or monetary allowances considering the nature of their work.

“This bill seeks to recognize the sacrifices of government employees who work late at night until the wee hours of the morning, when they are supposed to be asleep, by providing them premium pay for hours work during the night,” he said.

Recently, a number of BI employees have resigned while others went on leave due to the suspension of their overtime pay. This has caused long queues in the immigration area of airport terminals. 

Under Senate Bill No. 642, government workers who render work between 10:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. shall be given a night shift differential pay at a rate not exceeding 20 percent of the hourly rate of the employee. 

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