THE SENATE COMMITTEE on civil service, government reorganization and professional regulation is pushing for the passage of two bills that will provide night-shift differential pay and hazard pay to government workers.
“Our government workers have long suffered neglect and poor working conditions. This act is just a simple effort to repay them for their service and to recognize their role as the backbone of the government,” said Senator Antonio F. Trillanes IV, who chairs the committee, in a statement on Sunday.
“It is only fair that they should be given substantially the same benefits as those given to employees in the private sector,” he added.
Senate Bill No. 1562, written by Senators Leila M. de Lima and Loren B. Legarda, proposes a night differential pay for government employees “at a rate exceeding 20% of the hourly basic rate of the employee for each hour of work performed between ten o’clock in evening and six o’clock in the morning.”
The proposed night differential pay does not cover workers under the Republic Act No. 7305 or the Magna Carta of Public Health Workers and government employees whose services are required 24 hours a day, such as the uniformed personnel of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), Philippine National Police (PNP), Bureau of Jail and Management (BJMP), and the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP).
Meanwhile, Senate Bill No. 1559, introduced by Senators Trillanes and Legarda, provides for hazard pay for government employees assigned in the following fields:
• hazardous areas as declared by the Defense Secretary
• hardship posts characterized by distance, inconvenience of travel
• clinics, laboratories and similar stations which offers health and safety risks due to exposure to radiation, contagious diseases and volcanic activity
• institutions that tend to patients with mental health problems
• places that are subject to depredation by criminal elements, such as prison reservations and penal colonies without adequate police protection
• plants and installations of the arsenal
• aircraft and watercraft crossing bodies of water
• other work conditions which the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) shall consider hazardous
Both bills state that the night differential pay and the hazard pay could be received by government employees “regardless of the nature of their employment, whether permanent, contractual, temporary or casual.”
Senate Bills 1562 and 1559 are pending for second reading approval. — Camille A. Aguinaldo
