Senate tackles bills granting night-shift pay, hazard pay for gov’t workers

The Senate is currently tackling two bills which grant night-shift differential pay and hazard pay for government workers, respectively.

Senate Bill No. 1562 and Senate Bill No. 1559, authored and sponsored by Senator Antonio Trillanes in August 2017, are now in the second reading at the Senate.

“Our government workers have long suffered neglect and poor working conditions,”  Trillanes said in a statement on Sunday.

“This Act is just a simple effort to repay them for their service and to recognize their role as the backbone of our government,” he added.

Senate Bill No. 1562, according to Trillanes, proposes a night differential pay for government employees “at a rate not exceeding twenty percent (20%) of the hourly basic rate of the employee for each hour of work performed between ten o’clock in the evening and six o’clock in the morning.”

Under the said bill, the night differential pay would also apply to workers of government-owned or controlled corporations, but would not cover public health workers already given such benefits under Republic Act 7305, or the country’s uniformed personnel, which has a different salary rate.

Trillanes, who chairs the Senate Committee on Civil Service, Government Reorganization and Professional Regulation, said the night shift pay is part of the committee’s recognition of the “sacrifices of government employees who work late at night and in the wee hours of the morning.”

“It is only fair that they should be given substantially the same benefits as those given to employees in the private sector,” he added.

Meanwhile, Senate Bill No. 1559 proposes a hazard pay which shall be received by all government employees who are stationed or assigned to work in the following:

1. Hazardous areas, as may be declared by the Secretary of National Defense;
2. Difficult areas or hardship posts characterized by distance, inconvenience of travel due to bad roads and conditions of the terrain, isolation, inaccessibility and extreme weather conditions;
3. X-ray units, clinics, laboratories, sanitaria, leprosaria, observation posts and other similar stations which offer risks to health and safety due to exposure to radiation, contagious diseases and volcanic activity;
4. Institutions that tend or care for mentally-deranged patients;
5. Places that are subject to depredation by criminal elements as those in prison reservations and penal colonies without adequate police protection;
6. Plants and installations of the arsenal;
7. Aboard aircraft and watercraft in crossing bodies of water; and
8. Other similar work conditions which the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) shall consider hazardous on the basis of exposure to environment, health and social risks.

“The committee believes that it is only fair and reasonable that the officials and employees of the government be provided with appropriate compensation for the risks they assume in connection with the performance of their duties,” Trillanes said.

“After all, it is the government’s responsibility to protect and look after our government officials and employees whose lives are constantly at risk in order to serve our people,” he added.

According to the senator, both bills state that the night differential pay and the hazard pay could be received by government employees “regardless of the nature of their employment, whether permanent, contractual, temporary or casual.” /je