Workers hit steep pay increase for SSS execs

LABOR groups have opposed the grant of “midnight perks and benefits” amounting to P500,000 a month each to executives of the Social Security System (SSS), including its president and chief executive officer Emilio de Quiros and its chair, Juan Santos.

The labor coalition Nagkaisa said that under the SSS-proposed Compensation and Position Classification System (CPCS) for all government-owned and -controlled corporations and government financial institutions, De Quiros stood to gain a monthly salary increase of P500,000.

The draft compensation adjustment was signed by President Aquino and Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa on March 22.

The agency executives, led by De Quiros and Santos, are now reportedly lobbying the SSS board and rank and file for the immediate approval of the CPCS before incoming President Rodrigo Duterte assumes office on June 30.

“In light of the recent veto by President Aquino of the  P2,000 pension increase for some 2.4 million pensioners, we strongly oppose the plan to increase the salaries and benefits of top SSS executives, including De Quiros and Santos,” the Nagkaisa labor coalition said.

Sonny Matula, chair of the Federation of Free Workers, said the economy grew by 6.9 percent in the first quarter of 2016, but the poor workers, including rank and file employees, did not benefit from the growth.

“Maybe the big corporate officers and big shareholders benefited from the economic growth but not the working class,” Matula told the Inquirer.

He said the three-fold increase in SSS contributions did not trickle down to the workers.

“The present SSS pension is only P1,200 or P40 a day. Of the 2.3 million pensioners, about 700,000 receive P40 a day. Prisoners in jail get P50 a day. So it’s better to be a prisoner than an SSS pensioner,”  Matula said.