'Salary Standardization Law of 2019' to address inequality in salary adjustments- Revilla

Sen. Ramon Bong Revilla, Jr. called on his colleagues to support the passage of Senate Bill 1219 under Committee Report No. 26, or the "Salary Standardization Law of 2019" jointly submitted by the Committees on Civil Service, Government Organization and Professional Regulation; and Finance.

In his sponsorship speech, the veteran legislator defended that the bill will address the issue of inequality in the previous Salary Standardization Laws where majority of government employees received negligible increase while high-earning employees received hefty increase.

The proposed Salary Standardization Law of 2019 is set to benefit more than 1.4 million government employees especially those under Salary Grade 11 to 19.

This comprises 79 percent of the total government employees, including teachers and nurses.

Under the proposed measure, the salary adjustment will be given in four (4) tranches which will start in January 2020 and upon full implementation, it will increase the basic salaries by a weighted average of 23.24 percent by 2023.

In effect, it will grant the highest increase ranging from 20 to 30 percent for employees under SG 10 to SG 15, and the lowest of 8 percent for government workers under SG 23 to 33.

He added that the salary increase will help motivate government workers to improve and excel in their respective fields, and provide a sense of pride leading to more dignified responsibilities and greater accountabilities.

"Lahat ng empleyado na may mababang antas ng sahod ay hindi kumikita ng sapat para matustusan ang pangangailangan nila at ng kanilang pamilya. Gusto po naming siguruhin na maipatupad ang batas na ipapasa natin at maibibigay sa ating mga kawani ang inaasahan nilang pagtaas ng suweldo," Revilla stated.

The proposed measure adopted the DBM recommendation as approved by Pres. Rodrigo Duterte.