Former MWSS employees to enjoy benefits 21 years after separation

After 21 years, former employees of the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) who were displaced by the privatization of the water agency’s operations will finally get their separation benefits that they estimated at P454.69 million.

In a recent decision, the Commission on Audit (COA) “partly granted” the employees’ petition and directed the MWSS to release the separation pay granted by the Supreme Court to the employees.

Employees, headed by Gabriel Advincula, claimed MWSS owed them a total P454.69 million in unpaid separation pay.

The six-page decision issued by the three-man COA proper “partially granted” the petition of the employees for the execution of the High Court’s order that rejected MWSS’s position on the issue.

In its February 2, 2011 ruling, the SC upheld an earlier ruling by the Court of Appeals that the MWSS “must properly compensate those employees who have served for more than 30 years and have separated from MWSS in 1997” under the Early Retirement Incentive Package (ERIP).

At least 2,000 MWSS employees had availed themselves of this program that was implemented following the state water firm’s reorganization in 1996.

In 1997, MWSS offered ERIP as a result of the privatization of its operations that could affect 5,000 employees who are not expected to be absorbed by the two new concessionaires –Maynilad Water Services, Inc. and Manila Water Company, Inc.

Employes who were not paid separation pay sued MWSS and won favorable decision from both the Branch 87 of Regional Trial Court of Quezon City and the appellate court.