If there would be a new legislation that will provide a fresh round of pay hike for state employees, all government workers, whether temporary or permanent, should get salary increases and benefits, senatorial aspirant and Sorsogon Governor Francis ‘’Chiz’’ Escudero on Monday, Jan 31 said.

In January, the third tranche of the Salary Standardization Law (SSL) V took effect and adjusted the salaries of government employees holding plantilla positions, but left out workers under job order, contractual and temporary employment.

“In this time of pandemic, we cannot have a bureaucracy of haves and have nots – those who have salary increases and those who have not. We should narrow the pay gap, not widen it,” the veteran legislator pointed out.

According to the Civil Service Commission (CSC), there are some 582,378 hired under Job-Order (JO) and Contract of Service (COS) status as of August 2021.

JO, as defined by the CSC, is a “piece work (pakyaw) or intermittent or emergency jobs such as clearing of debris on the roads, canals, waterways, etc. after natural/man-made disasters/occurrences and other manual/trades and crafts services such as carpentry, plumbing, electrical and the like. These jobs are of short duration and for a specific piece of work.”

On the other hand, COS is defined as “the engagement of the services of an individual, private firm, other government agency, non-governmental agency or international organization as consultant, learning service provider or technical expert to undertake special project or job within a specific period.”

The former senator said he believes the inclusion of non-permanent items in the salary and benefits adjustments would not be difficult as the government could find means to have additional sources of funding in its annual budget.

Republic Act 114661 or the Salary Standardization Law of 2019 provides the modification of the Salary Schedule for Civilian Personnel and authorizes the grant of additional benefits. Under the law, some 1.6 million civil servants in plantilla positions stand to benefit from the pay hike, which will be in four tranches from 2020 until 2023.

The national government has allocated a total of P130.5 billion for the salary adjustments until next year. RA 114661 is the fifth SSL since RA 6758 (SSL I) was passed in 1989 during the term of President Corazon C. Aquino.

Aside from increasing the salaries and benefits of the JO/COS personnel in the same level of their plantilla holder counterparts, Escudero said the government should consider their regularization, especially if these employees have been in the service for many years.

Aware that a major prerequisite for regularization is the passing of Civil Service Professional Examination, except if one is a board passer, Escudero said that the CSC should review its policy on plantilla positions and consider one’s length of service, work experience and performance rating as substitutes to the requirements.

“The government should start a pathway to the regularization of perpetual JOs or contractuals. Bukod sa civil service exam, marami namang pwedeng gawing substitute sa requirements katulad ng length of service or performance rating,” he pointed out.

Meanwhile, the provincial chief executive shared that said in Sorsogon, his administration has already started the implementation of a budget circular that would increase the salaries of nurses working in public hospitals, as the third tranche of the SSL 5 took effect this month.

He added that as much as he wanted to adjust the salaries of non-plantilla medical workers, the law only limits it to holders of permanent positions.

Escudero said equal salaries for all health workers would make their take-home pay competitive with those who are in the private sector and even their counterparts abroad. He expressed hope that the increase in benefits and salaries will make Filipino nurses and doctors stay in the country.