Two lawmakers on Wednesday warned against possible wage distortion in government service if salary hikes are exclusively granted to public school teachers, instead of all civil service workers.
Bayan Muna Rep. Ferdinand Gaite said the salary adjustment should not only apply to school teachers but all state workers.
“Adjustment in salaries of state workers should be applied to all, instead of limiting such benefit to school teachers,” Gaite said.
Cagayan de Oro City Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, for his part, batted for an across-the-board salary adjustment to help government employees cope with the rising cost of living.
“Salary increases must apply to all state employees,” Rodriguez said. His position reflects a recent Pulse Asia survey which show that eight out of 10 Filipinos want new government salary hikes to cover all workers in the public sector, including teachers.
Conducted from June 24 to 30, the Pulse Asia survey showed that 77 percent of Filipinos aged 18 years old and above agreed that salary standardization should include all government workers. The same survey also showed that only 17 percent of the respondents were of the opinion that it should cover only teachers, a “negligible” 3 percent disagreed with the salary increase, and another 3 percent answered they “don’t know.” Survey respondents were from the National Capital Region, Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.
Education Secretary Leonor Briones has welcomed the survey results. “It shows that while [Department of Education] is recognized as the biggest bureaucracy in the country with a vital function, it is still part of an entire government system with functions that are economically interdependent of each other. There are nurses, engineers, and other professionals who also play important roles in the delivery of quality, accessible, relevant, and liberating basic education for the Filipino learners.”
Since she assumed office in 2016, Briones has been noted to have committed to seek ways to uplift the social and economic status of the Department’s teaching and non-teaching personnel, and to improve their working conditions and terms of employment.
She has also discussed in public the different considerations that need to be taken into account when increasing salary for one sector. However, this stand was misunderstood, if not misrepresented, by certain quarters to be a position against teachers’ salary increase.
In the 4th State of the Nation Address last July 23, President Rodrigo Roa Duterte directed members of the 18th Congress to take urgent action to pass the new Salary Standardization Law.