President Rodrigo Duterte has certified as urgent the proposed bill which seeks to increase the salaries of government employees.
In his letter to the Congress dated Dec. 13, the President said the salary hike is necessary to “address the need to further invigorate public service with efficiency and productivity by providing all government civilian personnel a just and equitable compensation responsive to their economic needs.”
Under the Senate version of the proposed Salary Standardization Law of 2019, the salary adjustment will be given in four tranches starting in January 2020 and will end in 2023.
The bill aims to grant 20 to 30-percent pay hike for employees under Salary Grade 10 to SG 15, and 8 percent for government workers under SG 23 to 33.
The House of Representatives’ appropriations committee earlier passed a similar bill.
Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo said on Monday that the Palace would not interfere with the legislature’s work.
Once a bill is certified as urgent, lawmakers can skip the three-day rule, allowing them to pass a measure on third reading immediately after it is passed on second reading.
The House of Representatives’ Committee on Appropriations on Monday approved the consolidated bill increasing the salary of government workers by 2020.
At the same time, the committee, chaired by Davao City Rep. Isidro Ungab, will ask President Duterte to certify as urgent House Bill 5712.
“We expect that the Office of the President might issue a certificate of urgency as soon as we are able to forward the committee report for plenary approval,” Ungab said.
But ACT Teachers Party-list Rep. France Castro said the salary increase being proposed in the bill was “insufficient.”
Under the bill, Salary Grade 1 employees will receive a P2,000 increase or P500 each year from 2020 to 2023. SG 1 will increase from P11,000 to P13,000 by 2023.
Castro also said the basic salary of public school teachers (Teacher 1) will increase from P20,754 to P27,000 after four years.
“This is P3,000 short of the teachers’ proposed salary hike… This proposal of the Department of Budget and Management and the House leadership is too low because we have long been appealing for a P30,000 basic pay for public teachers,” Castro said.
But Ungab said the SSL V was based on a study conducted by the DBM, which they believed was “well-prepared.” Some P34 billion was allocated for SSL V’s implementation under the proposed 2020 national budget, he said.
Also on Monday, the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines warned that employers and business owners who don’t pay their employees the mandatory 13th-month face bigger fines.
There are around 920,000 establishments employing 35 million who are rank-and-file employees in various major industry enterprises including agriculture, manufacturing and services sectors.
Employers who fail to give 13th-month pay will be charged with money claims and would have to pay more with moral and exemplary damages if found guilty.
Non-compliant employers could also lose their ISO certification.
“It is revolting to know that many businesses, employers and labor middlemen are not paying their 13th-month pay obligation with their rank-and-file employees. We are inundated with workers’ rants over and over every year. It is high time for TUCP to push government for a law that considers non-payment of overtime pay and 13th month pay as theft and robbery,” TUCP president Raymond Mendoza said.
“Christmas and the New Year… should be a happy season for the working people and their families. However, many employers spoil this by skirting away from their annual obligations by becoming a grinch and not paying their monetary obligation,” Mendoza said.
Mendoza said aggrieved employees may file complaint to the Department of Labor and Employment regional office or at the National Labor Relations Commission. They may also file a complaint at the Department of Trade and Industry or at the Bureau of Immigration in the case of foreign employer.
Employers and business owners in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao have only up to Dec. 24 to give the mandatory 13th-month pay to their rank-and-file employees.
Presidential Decree 851 otherwise known as Thirteenth Month Pay Law requires all employers to pay their employees one month’s equivalent salary on or before Dec. 24 every year. However, with the consent of employees, employers may give half of the pay every June and the other half every December of the year.
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