CLARK FREEPORT – They have waited for 12 years for pay increase, now employees especially rank and file workers at Clark Development Corporation, might just wait for another 10 months more to fully settle the pay scale row across all levels.
Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) Secretary Bienvenido Laguesma, on Wednesday, said that the request for restoration of CDC employees’ allowances, benefits and other incentives would be decided within the year.
This, as the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) assumed jurisdiction and was tasked by the Malacañang Palace to settle the issue in a meeting presided by Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin last January 27. It was attended by CDC President Agnes Devanadera and representatives of the Association of Concerned CDC Employees (ACCES), Association of Concerned Supervisory Personnel (ACSP) and Association of CDC Executives (ACE).
The meeting was held to settle the issue on ABIs, which were requested to be restored by CDC Management and employees’ unions.
Asked on what is the time frame to settle the request for the restoration of Allowances, Benefits and Incentives (ABIs) by ACCES, ACSP and ACE, Laguesma hopes for the Labor Department come up with a decision in the next 10 months.
“Konting panahon na lang. Hindi naman siguro aabutin ng 2024,” (It won’t take long. Maybe, it won’t reach 2024), Laguesma said Wednesday in an interview here .
The ABIs, which range from P5,000 to P14,000, have been removed under the Compensation and Position Classification System (CPCS) as ordered to be implemented in CDC by the Governance Commission for GOCCs (GCG) in June last year.
While the CPCS has raised the salaries of CDC employees, it has not, however, offset the ABIs that were removed. Severely affected workers are the rank and file whose new take home pays are now P1,000 to P5,000 less than what they received in the old pay scale. An example of the inequity is a Laborer who only got P289 in salary raise per month but whose P5,000 in allowances were removed. On the other hand, a Manager stands to receive an average of P50,000 raise in monthly salary amply covers the removed allowance of P5,000.
While noting that CDC is a “good employer”, he also expressed concern on the livelihood of its employees.
“Alam namin na ang usapin ay tagos sa sikmura,” (We are aware that the issue at hand affects subsistence) he added.
He said that the Labor Department will look into all the submissions (motions and interventions) even as he thanked the Unions and CDC Management – which both requested for restoration of ABIs – for cooperating in keeping calm towards addressing the issue.
The CPCS, awaited for several years by CDC employees who have not received new pay increases since 2010, has granted a 2-job grade raise for Management level while giving only a 1 job grade for assistant managers, supervisors and rank and file employees.
ABIs are part of Collective Bargaining Agreements between CDC and the two labor unions and have been granted to all CDC workers at all levels.
