BACOLOD City – Negros Occidental provincial government workers appealed to the national government to increase their salaries.
Their “take-home pay can no longer take them home,” according to the Progressive Alliance of Capitol Employees (PACE).
“Unabated increases” in the prices of all commodities have rendered their current salaries and wages “useless,” said PACE president Vinchito Magalona.
The lowest ranking of them earns a gross amount of P13,000 but “almost all of it go to loan payments and numerous deductions, forcing employees look for other means of income – worst, another loan,” Magalona said.
All government employees must be paid a minimum gross of P30,000, like those in the military and the police, “to make sure they can survive the unbearable prices of basic commodities,” he stressed.
And if a salary adjustment gets approved, it should be released “immediately as a whole and not by tranches,” as what is happening under the Salary Standardization Law, the employees’ group leader said.
The PACE is an affiliate of the Confederation for Unity, Advancement and Recognition of Government Employees./PN
