BLEAK CHRISTMAS LOOMS FOR STATE WORKERS

Submitted by courage_phil on Wed, 11/17/2010 - 13:23.

QUEZON CITY –  It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas,but a bleak one for the country’s more than 1 million state workers.

 

In a statement, the country’s biggest national center of governmentemployees, COURAGE said other than the traditional Christmas Cash Gift and 13^thmonth pay bonus half of which were already received in May, employees are warythat they will not receive any other benefits under the  Aquino Administration. Worse, the benefitsand incentives being received by their counterparts in the Government Owned andControlled Corporations (GOCCs) and Government Financial Institutions (GFIs) werestill suspended due to the implementation of Executive Order Number 7. 

“The remaining half of the Christmas cash gift and 13^thmonth pay due for release on Monday, November 15 was already spent, naipangutang na, even before it wasreceived so there is really nothing to look forward to”, Ferdinand Gaite,COURAGE National President said.  

The leader stressed “government employees are starting to feel thecrunch.  What was supposed to correct theexorbitant and scandalous bonuses, allowances and perks of governmentexecutives and board of directors/trustees of GOCCs and GFIs became a burdeninstead for the rank and file employees who rely on benefits to augment theirlow pay. These officials can afford the delay even the withdrawal of theirunconscionable benefits but definitely not the employees”.

Last September 8, President Aquino issued Executive Order No. 7 inthe light of the expose on officials and Executives of GOCCs and GFIs receivingmillions of pesos in allowances, incentives and benefits.   

“EO 7 did not even lift a finger or go beyond the usual rhetoric anddare prosecute the identified officials (the Commission on Audit enumeratedthese top 40 who received millions in 2009 alone) who themselves thought of theperks, approved the same and appropriated the needed funds.  Instead, employees’ benefits traditionallybeing received during the months of October to December of the year, includingthe Collective Negotiations Agreement Signing Bonuses and Incentives, are nowbeing jeopardized”.

COURAGE is pushing for the revocation of EO 7 and has alreadystarted a campaign for a new round of wage adjustment. “We are seeking a P6,000increase in the minimum pay because the Salary Standardization Law 3 failedmiserably to address the plight of the minimum pay (Salary Grade 1) employees.An SG 1 employee only receives a pay of P6,781 sans deduction while the cost ofliving stands at P28,000. Our take home pay cannot even take us home”.

A proposed bill shall be filed on November 24 at the House ofRepresentatives. #