Abad: Proposal to raise gov't workers' pay up for PNoy's approval

Budget Secretary Florencio Abad on Monday disclosed that the salary hike proposal has already been forwarded to Aquino's office. He declined to elaborate on its details, saying the rates are still being finalized.

 

"We are not at liberty to discuss it until it is approved and submitted to the House, but there is a proposal and as much as possible, we are trying to bring it as close to the market as possible without putting a lot of pressure on the finances of government," Abad told reporters on the sidelines of the initial plenary deliberations on the proposed P3-trillion national budget for 2016 at the House of Representatives.

"I hope that if the president approves it, we are hoping that Congress can act on it before the year ends," he said.

 

The DBM has included an item for the proposed increase in government workers' wages under the Miscellaneous Personnel Benefits Fund of the 2016 budget, but the allocations have yet to be set. 

 

Abad earlier said the DBM's nationwide survey of worker salaries which ended last July showed government pay stood at a mere 55 percent of the average salaries received by workers in the private sector.

 

Government employees last received an increase in their salaries in 2012 with the implementation of the last stage of the Salary Standardization Law III signed by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in 2009. — Xianne Arcangel/JDS, GMA News