Positions must be created first before benefits would be given

It is not the lack of a city council measure that stopped the Talisay City government from granting the step increment to its regular employees, according to the city budget officer.

The City Council is yet to pass a resolution creating the 138 positions after Human Resource Department Officer Emily Cabrera told the body that it should create the positions first before any benefits could be granted.

City budget officer Edgardo Mabunay said the problem over the non-granting of the employees' request for the step increment was not due to the lack of resolution but because of their high salaries.

Mabunay explained that when Talisay was yet a first-class municipality, it already adopted a salary grade of a second-class city. When it became a city in 2001, he said the salaries of its employees were already at par with those of a first-class city.

But he added that the city government is still working on more benefits for the employees.

However, the Department of Budget and Management advised the city government that before giving the step increment and other benefits to the employees, it should first apply an "equal-level salary."

But since the city is giving more benefits to the employees, any additional benefits would be excessive, said Mabunay, who added that they are on the process of seeing through who among the employees deserve the step increment.

"That is already guaranteed. Bisan mo-retire ka makadawat man gihapon ka ana," Mabunay said of the step increment, which has been continuously asked by the employees.

The Talisay City Employees' Union said they have not been getting the benefit when it supposed to be given every three years. The last time they had it was in 2001.

With regard to the resolution, Mabunay said it was only asked by the DBM from the city out of formality.

He said those reported "bogus" positions occupied by the City Hall workers are actually "legal" ones since they were appropriated by the annual budget.