Job-order, contractual gov’t workers get P 3,000 gratuity pay

Good news for job-order and contract-of-service employees in the government.

The workers, who do not enjoy benefits accorded to regular employees, such as midyear, year-end and performance-based bonuses, will receive P3,000 in one-time gratuity pay for their services in 2019.

President Rodrigo Duterte has approved the release of funds to cover the gratuity pay for government job-order and contractual workers through Administrative Order No. 20.

Mostly from LGUs

In 2018, the government employed a total of 658,678 job-order and contract-of-service employees, of whom 458, 787 were from local government units (LGUs).

The directive, dated Jan. 10, grants a gratuity pay to these workers who rendered at least four months of satisfactory service last year.

“Granting a year-end gratuity pay to job-order and contract-of-service workers is a well-deserved recognition of their hard work,” the President said.

The one-time gratuity pay should not exceed P3,000 for each employee covered by the directive.

Those who served for less than four months will still receive a gratuity pay on a prorata basis: not exceeding P2,000 for those who served three months or more but less than four months; not exceeding P1,500 for those who served two months or more but less than three months; and not exceeding P1,000 for those who served for less than two months.

The directive covers those employed by national agencies, state universities and colleges, government-owned or-controlled corporations (GOCCs) and local water districts (LWDs).

The President also encouraged LGUs to grant gratuity pay to their job-order and contract-of-services employees.

The gratuity pay will be sourced from the available maintenance and other operating expenses allotment.

Should this be insufficient, the agency may request the Department of Budget and Management for additional funds to be charged against the identified savings of the agency concerned.

On the other hand, GOCCs and LWDs will source the gratuity pay from their approved corporate spending budgets.