Tuesday, April 29, 2008 Mayor to make sure enforcers get paid
CEBU City Mayor Tomas Osmeña wants all 48 traffic enforcers to go back to their post at the Banilad flyover construction site, as he will make sure they get paid for their overtime work.
Yesterday, he said they should not have been made to go on a compensatory leave because traffic in the Banilad area needs to be carefully managed while construction is ongoing.
He also asked the Cebu City Traffic Operations Management (Citom) to follow up with the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) 7 the release of P1 million
intended for salary and overtime pay of enforcers assigned in Banilad.
“They should be there, of course. So we’ll just pay them... DPWH has to give Citom the P1 million already, we have to follow that up,” Osmeña told a news conference yesterday.
Contractor’s budget
Citom Executive Officer Arnel Tancinco earlier asked the enforcers to go on leave for two days because the flyover contractor’s budget for their overtime pay is running out.
Instead of paying the enforcers five days worth of overtime pay, Citom will pay them for extra work rendered for just three days, and asked them to go on leave for two days with pay, which will serve as payment.
Not comfortable
In a phone interview yesterday, Tancinco said they will have to let the enforcers take the leave as they already filed for it, and some are already on leave.
“The mayor is not comfortable with the idea…. (But) if we recall their leave application, they might also complain,” he said.
For his part, City Administrator Francisco Fernandez said he asked Tancinco not to be too lenient when approving leave applications, especially if it is being done because funds are running out.
Although government employees are entitled to compensatory leave, it should have the approval of their superiors, Fernandez said.
“I told him to strictly regulate the use of compensatory leave. Anyway, we are expecting DPWH to give us the money for the overtime pay. We should be capable of paying the overtime pay of all the employees who are supposed to get it,” he added. (LCR)
