THE House of Representatives on Wednesday approved on third and final reading a measure increasing the salary of civilian government employees, including nurses and teachers, under the proposed Salary Standardization law (SSL) 5.
Voting 187 affirmative and 5 negative, the lower chamber passed House Bill 5712, which seeks to modify the salary schedule for civilian government personnel and authorize the grant of additional benefits.
The measure was certified urgent by President Duterte. It will now be transmitted to the bicameral conference committee to reconcile the differences between the versions of the Senate and the House.
House Committee on Appropriations Chairman Isidro Ungab, sponsor of the bill, said the proposed 2020 General Appropriations Act already provides P34 billion for the implementation of the first tranche salary increase under the miscellaneous personnel benefit fund.
The bill seeks to raise the minimum basic salary, Salary Grade 1, from P11,068 to P13,000, to remain competitive with the minimum daily wage in the National Capital Region (NCR).
For personnel of National Government Agencies (NGAs), the salary schedule shall be implemented in four tranches, with the first tranche beginning on January 1, 2020, the second tranche beginning on January 1, 2021, the third tranche beginning on January 1, 2022, and the fourth tranche beginning on January 1, 2023.
“The salaries of government personnel will be raised closer to market rates while giving priority to the rank and file consisting of Sub-Professional and Professional categories,” he said.
According to Ungab, one of the principles of the other standardization law is that government pay must be comparable with the private sector.
The proposal raises salaries by a significant amount, especially in the lower Salary Grades.
For positions allocated to Salary Grades 11 to 13— for example, Teachers 1, 2, and 3—the increase in salary shall be 30.1 percent, 27.1 percent, and 24.5 percent, respectively, upon full implementation.
Ungab said that consistent with Duterte’s pronouncement in his State of the Nation Address last July 2019, the proposed salary adjustments will cover all civilian personnel, including teachers and nurses. This shall cover government personnel whether regular, contractual, or casual, appointive or elective; and on full-time or part-time basis.
Ungab said the bill also considered the results of the study on compensation and benefits in the public sector, which the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) and the Governance Commission for GOCCs conducted together with a private consulting firm.
“Said study aimed to determine the competitiveness of government pay in relation to the private sector and developed a compensation strategy to bring government pay closer to market rates, thereby attract and retain competent and dedicated employees to the civil service,” Ungab said.
Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano, principal author of the bill, said like many Filipinos, public servants depend on their jobs as their main source of income.
Image credits: AP/Aaron Favila