Senate panel backs night pay for gov’t workers
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). —