Happier holidays with Sotto bill

Senator Vicente “Tito” Sotto III     INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

FOR ONE lawmaker, workers deserve a merrier Christmas.

Sen. Tito Sotto has proposed requiring private companies to give their employees a 14th-month pay, citing the paltry P10 minimum wage hike amid rising prices.

Sotto’s Senate Bill No. 2, “An Act Requiring Employers in the Private Sector to Pay 14th Month Pay,” cited the “indispensable need” to give the incentive as the current year-end bonuses were usually “gobbled up by Christmas expenses.”

“This will make the maxim attributed to President Ramon Magsaysay become a reality: ‘Those who have less in life should have more in law,’” Sotto said.

The 14th month pay bill requires all private companies to give their employees additional pay equivalent to at least half of the basic salary not later than Dec. 24 of every year.

The frequency of the payment “may be the subject of agreement between employer and employee or any recognized collective bargaining agent of employees, the bill reads. Tarra Quismundo