Manila gov’t workers end year with a bang

On the last working day of the year, Manila City government employees received their annual incentive pay and half of the salary increases promised them under the Salary Standardization Law.

At the flag-raising ceremony at city hall on Thursday, Mayor Alfredo Lim announced the release of P120 million for the workers’ Productivity Enhancement Incentives (PEI).

The city’s 11,000 regular employees received P10,000 each and  1,500 casual employees, P5,000 each.

On the other hand, 1,500 job order employees, 250 volunteers and 850 barangay health workers will get P3,000 each.

“The hope and the greetings must be bountiful during the New Year. New hope, new life,” Lim said in Filipino during the flag ceremony.

Also released was the second tranche of pay increases under the Salary Standardization Law, according to Manila city council clerk Nilo Lagman.

The first half was released earlier this month.

“We’re very thankful today,” Lagman told the Inquirer. “It’s a happy New Year!”

On Dec. 13, the Manila City Council led by Councilor Dennis Alcoreza approved a resolution urging Lim to implement the Department of Budget and Management’s Administrative Order No. 24 authorizing the one-time grant of the PEI for all local government employees. The maximum amount for the incentive pay is P10,000.

Alcoreza noted that the additional benefit was not released in 2010 and expressed concern that it would not be given out this year.

Lim, in his speech at the city hall quadrangle, said he had kept mum about the benefits because “he did not want to make any promises that he could not keep.

Only one other benefit for regular city employees, a P2,500 monthly financial assistance, remains undistributed, said Lagman. It has not been released since July this year.

In a privilege speech also on Dec. 13, Alcoreza said that the allowance “has become an integral part of the employees’ compensation” and that “nonpayment of said financial assistance is tantamount to diminution of compensation.”

But in an interview last week, Lim explained that the P2,500 assistance was actually “subject to the availability of funds.”

Asked why funds were lacking, Lim said that the city was giving out tax credits as compensation to heavyweight corporations.