Gov’t workers to get early Christmas gift

The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) assured government workers yesterday that their Christmas bonus this year will not be less than P5,000 and that they will get half of their 13th month pay on Nov. 15.

At the same time, DBM Secretary Rolando Andaya said state employees could expect a third round of salary increase after Congress passes the 2007 budget proposed by Malacañang.

Andaya said President Arroyo would make the official announcement about the Christmas gift in early December.

He said the government employees would get half of their 13th month pay on Nov. 15. The other half was released last May.

"This is good news. We will make sure that our employees will feel the fiscal gains that we are talking about. We have allotted a budget for this as early as October. So the government workers have nothing to worry about this," he said.

Andaya said he could not reveal the amount yet but he stressed it would not be less than the P5,000 Christmas bonus that was given last year.

He said the government had proposed the third part of the salary standardization that would amount to P10.3 billion.

He said the government was eyeing P80 billion for the salary increase of state workers until 2010.

"The government employees have long been waiting for the third round of their salary increase," Andaya said.

There are 1.1 million government employees including workers of local government units and government owned companies.

According to the DBM, the salary of government workers must be at par with the private sector’s. It says the disparity in salary scale between the government and that of the private sector increases as the rank goes higher.

Andaya noted the difference could be actually seen from Salary Grade 10 and up.

The government employees’ last salary increase was in 2001 when the salary scale for government workers was revised in January and July.

At present, the lowest paid government employee has a basic monthly salary of P5,082 (Salary Grade 1). Included in this salary grade are utility workers.

A public school teacher with the entry-level rank of Teacher 1, on the other hand, belongs to Salary Grade 10 and earns a basic monthly salary of P9,939. The highest scale, Salary Grade 33, is allotted to the President who gets a basic monthly salary of P57,750.