{"id":237242,"date":"2019-11-12T18:40:22","date_gmt":"2019-11-12T23:40:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=237242"},"modified":"2019-11-12T18:40:22","modified_gmt":"2019-11-12T23:40:22","slug":"recto-urges-palace-to-submit-bill-for-govt-workers-pay-hike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/11\/12\/recto-urges-palace-to-submit-bill-for-govt-workers-pay-hike\/","title":{"rendered":"Recto urges Palace to submit bill for gov\u2019t workers\u2019 pay hike"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Recto noted that the Duterte administration has promised to increase the salaries of civil servants through SSL 5. (File Photo<\/a>: Sen. Ralph Recto\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto on Tuesday urged Malaca\u00f1ang to send to Congress its own version of the bill containing the proposed salary standardization law (SSL) 5 that seeks to increase the salaries of government workers, including nurses and teachers.<\/p>\n

\u201cMag-di-Disyembre na, ni anino ng<\/em>\u00a0Salary Standardization Law\u00a0wala pa. Malamig na simoy ng hangin, wala pa rin ang panukala na nagtataas ng sahod ni titser ang ating naamoy<\/em>\u00a0(It\u2019s nearly December, but even the shadow of the SSL 5 is nowhere in sight. The cold December air has arrived, but the bill raising teachers\u2019 pay can\u2019t be smelled in the air.) When will it come out of the Palace kitchen?,\u201d Recto said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur early Christmas wish is for the Palace to submit the bill soon so that Congress can debate on it, and bring it to the President\u2019s table for his signature before Christmas Day,\u201d Recto added.<\/p>\n

Recto noted that the Duterte administration has promised to increase the salaries of civil servants through SSL 5.<\/p>\n

He said the money for the increases, in the amount of PHP31.1 billion, has been pre-parked in the 2020 national budget.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe money is there, the bill on its use will come later. And there is nothing wrong with putting the cart before the horse, as it assures government employees that a salary increase is a done deal,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The lawmaker, however, argued that the SSL 5 would require a separate law and therefore cannot be a “rider” in the General Appropriations Act.<\/p>\n

He said it also cannot be implemented via executive order and can only be authorized by a congressional act.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter the uniformed services had their salary increases two years ago, the government is duty-bound to extend the same to civilian government employees. It was a promise made to them, that after their uniformed counterparts have received theirs, the one for them will follow soon,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is time to redeem this promissory note. I can only surmise that the Palace is having a hard time calibrating the increases, and apportioning how much each one would get,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Recto said such move is not an \u201ceasy exercise to pull off\u201d, as the government pay scale has 33 grades, with eight steps each, meaning 258 different pay grades must be attached with new amounts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact is, the pie, when cut, will result in not so big slices. PHP31.1 billion divided by 1.391 million civilian employees, and divided further by 13 months will result in an average PHP1,718 monthly increase per employee,\u201d Recto added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto on Tuesday urged Malaca\u00f1ang to send to Congress its own version of the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":232520,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-237242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-filane-mikee-cervantes","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237242"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237242\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":237244,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237242\/revisions\/237244"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}