Angeles mayor yields to employees’ demands

ANGELES CITY — For the city’s over a thousand employees, Christmas is belatedly just around the corner.

After holding noise barrages since last January and threatening to go on mass leave, City Hall employees, including those of the government-run Ospital ning Angeles, are to receive their GMA Christmas bonus of P5,000 each.

They will get another P5,000 each as "goodwill bonus" for the signing of their collective negotiations agreement (CNA) with city officials, as well as their regular rice allowance.

Streetsweepers and traffic aides, for their part, will also be given their hazard pay in varying amounts.

Fabian Hallig, adviser to the Association of Government Employees for New and Dynamic Angeles City (Agenda), said Mayor Carmelo Lazatin has agreed to release the employees’ benefits after the city accounting office certified that funds were available for them.

"City Hall employees were the only ones who did not enjoy shopping during the last Christmas season because while other government employees got their GMA bonuses before the last holidays, we never got any," said a streetsweeper, who asked not to be named.

He noted that employees of small municipalities in Pampanga even got a P10,000 GMA bonus.

Operations at City Hall were paralyzed last Feb. 17 after Agenda members carried out their threat to go on mass sick leave to press for the release of their benefits.

The mass leave, however, was cut short after officials of the Civil Service Commission intervened and negotiated for a dialogue between Lazatin and Agenda officers.

"The mayor has agreed to grant all the bonuses and even the reported witch-hunting of all those who led the protest moves has been stopped," Hallig said.

Agenda leaders noted that the P7.5 million needed for the GMA bonus comprises only 18.75 percent of the total savings of the city government.

Agenda president Isabelita Ruiz said the P5,000 "signing bonus" for the employees was stipulated in the CNA which was signed in the presence of CSC officials in November 2000.

The city government had released only a little over P1,000 of this bonus. Lazatin reportedly vowed to release the balance soon.