THE DEPARTMENT of Labor and Employment (DoLE) gave bus companies until March 9 to incorporate a semi-fixed salary component in paying their drivers and conductors, a compensation structure that was sanctioned by the Supreme Court last year.
In a radio interview on Tuesday, Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III said that bus companies should comply with the part-fixed, part performance based salary.
“Kailangan sundin na nila ‘yung minimum wage law at saka ‘yung provision on overtime and entitlement sa ibang benefits of a regular employee. Hindi na kagaya noong araw na on commission basis,” he said.
(They need to follow the minimum wage law and also the provision on overtime and the regular employee’s entitlement of other benefits. It shouldn’t be like back then when it was still a commission basis).
The elimination of purely performance-based compensation is expected to eliminate behavior that worsens road travel conditions or makes it more dangerous, including racing to the next stop in order to be first to load new passengers and lingering in pickup areas.
By March 9, Mr. Bello added, “Bus drivers will be considered regular employees, and the computation of daily wages should start.”
On Feb. 15, DoLE agency the National Wages and Productivity Commission (NWPC) released revised guidelines on bus employee compensation and required bus companies to submit their two-tier compensation schemes to the labor department.
The guidelines also call on bus operators to follow the “part fixed, part performance based” compensation scheme stated in DoLE Department Order No. 118-12. The performance-based component should be computed as the current average daily earnings minus the fixed wage. The fixed wage should follow the prescribed daily salary of each region.
Mr. Bello said that bus companies should welcome this because it assures the safety of the driver, conductor and passengers, adding “Accidents are often caused by drivers seeking to maximize their passengers and increasing their commissions. That’s risky.”
In September, the Supreme Court (SC) ruled that the part fixed, part performance-based compensation scheme to be legal, adding that the fixed income component “equalizes the playing field, so to speak, so that competition and racing among bus drivers are prevented.” — Gillian M. Cortez
