President Benigno Simeon Aquino III INQUIRER FILE PHOTO/JOAN BONDOC
Next year, employees in state-run corporations would enjoy higher salaries on top of performance-based incentives under a system that would cost the government P6 billion a year.
Governance Commission for Government Owned or Controlled Corporations (GCG) Chair Cesar L. Villanueva told reporters last week that they expect President Aquino to come out with an executive order putting in place the Compensation and Position Classification System (CPCS) for GOCC workers before Congress resumes session next month.
The CPCS will “standardize GOCC compensation and make it competitive with the private sector doing comparable work in order to attract, retain and motivate a corps of competent civil servants,” the GCG said.
“Through the CPCS, all GOCCs under GCG’s jurisdiction shall follow a standard compensation framework streamlining the number of allowances and ensuring that the basic salary represents the bulk of an officer or employee’s compensation for better transparency,” it had also said.
According to Villanueva, GOCC employees would have salaries equivalent to about 70 percent of their counterparts in the private sector under the CPCS.
“We hope to replicate the Singapore model where the best and the brightest opt to work in GOCCs,” he said.
Subsequent salary hikes would be based on performance, as well as on the capability of GOCCs to pay higher salaries, the GCG official said.
The proposal was based on a study conducted by global professional services provider Towers Watson, which suggested additional salaries totaling P6 billion across GOCCs each year.
The over 1.5 million workers in government—from the President down to minimum salary earners—could enjoy higher pay starting next year under a proposed bill being endorsed by the President.
Under the proposed Salary Standardization Law of 2015, the salary of the next Philippine president would be more than triple—P388,096 a month by 2019 from the present P120,000.
As for the minimum basic salary or Salary Grade 1, the proposed law calls for an increase to a mere P11,068 a month by 2019 from just P9,000 per month at present.
Under the bill, salaries would be adjusted over the next four years beginning 2016. It would cost the government a total of P226 billion, according to Budget Secretary Florencio “Butch” Abad.
Congress aims to pass the bill on final reading when it resumes from its break on Jan. 19 next year.
Once passed into law, the initial tranche of salary adjustment would take effect on Jan. 1, 2016, Abad had said.