CLARK FREEPORT — Members of the Metro Clark Advisory Council (MCAC) signed a manifesto supporting the call of the Clark Development Corporation (CDC) to suspend the implementation of the new pay scale system which affects the financial status of rank-and-file workers and strips them of their allowances.
The Compensation and Position Classification System (CPCS) has recently been issued by the Governance Commission for Government-Owned and Controlled Corporation (GCG) to the state-owned firm.
MCAC members and officials including Mabalacat City Mayor Crisostomo Garbo, Angeles City Mayor Carmelo Lazatin, Jr., Porac Mayor Jaime Capil, Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Jose Antonio Feliciano and Capas, Tarlac Mayor Reynaldo Catacutan signed on June 28, 2022, Manifesto Resolution No. 2, series of 2022, which strongly endorses the appeal of the CDC management to the Office of the President and GCG to defer the imposition of the new pay scale system to CDC.
Under the resolution, MCAC said that the CPCS has caused “a large-scale diminution of compensation, benefits, and demoralization to most CDC employees.”
On the CPCS table issued to CDC, some 635 rank-and-file employees and supervisory workers saw a decrease in their monthly income. Aside from this, their benefits and allowances such as health coverage, cost-of-living allowance (COLA), housing, utilities and transportation allowances, Meritorious Service Pay (MSP) based on length of service, and retirement package or separation pay will be discontinued.
In addition, MCAC also cited that “reconsideration and review of the said CPCS” should also be made.
“As government officials, we believe that any action of any government office that will cause massive diminution of pay of workers (be it in the public or private sector) is in violation of basic principles of the Constitution and other major laws and we feel sympathy for the workers and their families,” the body said in its resolution.
Meanwhile, the management of CDC headed by its President and CEO Manuel R. Gaerlan vowed to exhaust all efforts and legal means to resolve the plight of the CDC workers.
“We will fight for your welfare, we will appeal sa GCG at kung kinakailangan ay sa Office of the President dahil yung naging basehan ay isang Executive Order,” Gaerlan said to CDC workers.
GCG issued the CPCS Authority to Implement (ATI) to CDC last June 22, 2022. CDC management and CDC Board of Directors said that they will request for the suspension of the said ATI, and will appeal to the GCG to give the CDC rank-and-file higher Job Grade equivalents.
