Senate tackles gov't workers’ night-shift, hazard pays

The Senate is taking up two measures that aim to give government employees a new night-shift differential pay and hazard pay.

Senate Bills 1562 and 559, which were sponsored and authored by Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, chair of the Senate Committee on Civil Service, Government Reorganization and Professional Regulation, are now on second reading.

“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 our government,” Trillanes said.

Senate Bill 1562 proposes a night differential pay for government employees at a rate not exceeding 20 percent of the employee’s hourly basic rate for each hour of work performed between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.

The senator said the night-shift pay is one way the committee recognizes the “sacrifices of government employees who work late at night and in the wee hours of the morning.”

“It is only fair that they should be given substantially the same benefits as those given to employees in the private sector,” he stressed.

Not covered by the proposed act are public health workers who are already covered by Republic Act No. 7305.

The new night-differential rates bill do not also cover government employees whose services are required, or are on call, 24 hours a day such as the uniformed personnel of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), the Philippine National Police (PNP), the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP), and the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP).