A day after President Benigno Aquino III approved an increase in the pay of government employees, Senate President Franklin Drilon on Saturday urged the former to authorize a hike in the salary of Government Owned and Controlled Corporations (GOCC) personnel.
READ: Gov’t workers get pay hike
Drilon said Aquino should also grant a wage hike to GOCC employees, who are excluded in the recently signed order, to “retain highly competitive individuals in government service” and to allow GOCCs “to be financially sound and sustainable.”
“It is about time that the compensation for personnel under GOCCs be adjusted if the government really wants to attract and retain highly competitive individuals in government service,” Drilon said in a statement.
“We have a pool of competitive, committed and intelligent human workforce in the GOCCs in various sectors such as in finance and trade,” he added.
Aquino on Thursday signed Executive Order No. 201 after the Congress failed to pass the proposed Salary Standardization Law that would raise the salaries of some 1.5 million government employees, and cost the government a total of P226 billion.
The SSL of 2015 would give government employees except incumbent elected national officials four rounds of annual wage hikes starting Jan. 1, 2016.
READ: Aquino signs order increasing pay of gov’t employees
The pay of GOCC personnel, meanwhile, is governed by the Compensation and Position Classification System (CPCS), which Drilon said was “no longer reflective of the needs” of the employees of GOCCs and government financial institutions.
The senator, who is running for reelection under the administration coalition, added that salaries of GOCC personnel should be at par with their counterparts in the private sector.
“The government should do everything it could in order to retain them (GOCC employees). Otherwise we will lose our hardworking employees to the private sector,” Drilon said.
“We have to update the compensation system to achieve competitive rates particularly in government financial institutions. We must ensure an appropriate remuneration system that is beneficial to both the employees and the agencies,” he added. CDG
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