TALISAY City Hall rank and file employees will finally get their 10 percent salary increase starting this month.
Both Human Resources Management Office (HRMO) Chief Emely Cabrera and City Treasurer Emma Macuto announced yesterday that all supporting papers are already in order for the release of the salary hike.
Cabrera said regular workers will receive their 10 percent salary increase differential covering the months of July and August.
“It will be retroactive to July because that’s the effectivity of the increase of their basic monthly pay,” she said.
Majority of the 286 rank and file workers are members of the City of Talisay Employees Union (CTEU), whose leaders have been calling for the immediate release of their salary adjustments.
Council’s help
Union officials, headed by City Building Official Ariel Araw-araw, even sought the help of the City Council following the approval of the P22 million second supplemental budget.
The new supplemental budget includes the representation and traveling allowances (Rata) of key City Hall officials and the regular workers’ 10 percent salary hike.
The CTEU found it unfair that the Rata of the mayor, City Council members and department heads would be released ahead of their salary increase.
Additional pay
City officials will got an additional P1,600 on top of their old P8,000 Rata.
Sun.Star Cebu learned that they received the first release of the new Rata last Aug. 15, retroactive to April.
Cabrera explained that it took them time to complete the documentation, as they had to compute the workers’ individual pay.
“It’s a tedious process because each worker has a different salary adjustment,” she said.
The HRMO issues the notice of salary adjustments, which will be attached to the payroll, and computes the deductions of withholding tax and government contributions.
To prove her point, Cabrera showed reporters two sets of voluminous documents and supporting papers for the rank-and-file employees’ salary adjustments.
Pittance
But a regular worker lamented that the salary increase is just pittance and would barely be enough, given the prevailing prices of basic commodities.
“If a regular employee receives a monthly salary of P6,000, he will only have a 10 percent increase, or P600. Minus the tax deductions, what can you get?” the employee asked.
Apart from the salary increase, the CTEU is also fighting for the release of their anniversary bonus and collective negotiations agreement, a cash benefit that would be taken from the City’s annual savings. (GC)
