DAVAO City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio announced an increase of salary to all job orders (JOs) and contract of service (COS) employees beginning January 2020.

Duterte-Carpio, during her State of the City Address (Soca) speech on Monday, October 14, said the increase will be P220 per month or P10 per day in 22 working days.

The mayor said an estimated 10,000 local government employees, including JOs and COS, will benefit in the salary increase.

She said the salary increase aims to ensure that their salaries will, in the future, equal the minimum of those in the lowest permanent position.

"We recognize that even though they are not employees of the City, they nevertheless, work hard like any of us," Duterte-Carpio said.

Prior to the increase, she said the City Government had already increased the salary rate of our Job Order and Contract of Service personnel to P396 per day. She said it is beyond the mandatory minimum wage set by the Department of Labor and Employment (Dole) for employees within Davao City.

"Next year, ato na gi-budgetan na increasan na sila because ang gusto nato mahitabo is that atoang JOs and COS equal sa minimum sweldo sa atong permanent employees (Next year, we already allocated the budget for the increase of the JOs and COS' salaries because we wanted to equate it with those from the permanent employees)," Duterte-Carpio said in a press conference.

She added the difference in the salary is "unjust."

Duterte-Carpio also said an in-house health benefit package for plantilla employees of the City Government has been allotted in the 2020 Annual Budget to provide assistance in the payment of doctors' consultation fee, hospitalization, and burial expenses.