Diminution of benefits

Poor SSS employees.

For the first time in their lives as public servants, many employees of the Social Security System (SSS) are ashamed to be associated with an agency that is now at the center of a controversy involving millions of pesos in “undeserved” bonuses.

Even before the media got hold of a report regarding the fat bonuses received by SSS board members and officials, an email sent by an employee of the agency to no less than SSS president Emil de Quiros had already been circulating among the different SSS branches.

In that email, the employee started off his tirade as follows:

“ ​What made matters worse is that you mired us SSS employees into this controversy knowing fully well that we are the direct victims of your oppressive management.  You justified your self-awarded bonuses by stating that all of us have received the same bonuses which totally amounted to two hundred million plus. This is a classic example of adding insult to injury.  If only the media knew how you treated the SSS as if it was a corporation you inherited from your ancestors.”

That same email alleged, and this I confirmed with other SSS employees, that the performance bonus received by the employees have a been a part of their yearly benefits and that while  the bottom 10 percent received nothing, the top 10 percent received two and a half times their basic salary.

The performance bonus received by the rank and file was subjected to taxes (for a long time, the provident fund was tax-exempt) while that of the SSS board and top officials was not.

The employees likewise assail the fact that they could not avail of their monthly rice grant unless they pay in cash the value exceeding P1,800.

“ ​As it turned out now, you entitled yourselves with excessive per diem and   awarded yourselves with millions of bonuses while you deprived us of that little we depend upon to sustain the needs of our families.  It is now clear that you are enriching yourselves while you caused us to sink deep in a miserable state of poverty.  You promote your selfish self-interest at the expense of the employees and members of the SSS,” it was further alleged.

And how can De Quiros and his cohorts insist that they deserve the millions of pesos in bonuses they received when in fact, the performance bonuses that they granted themselves were not based on their actual performance but rather on their attendance to board meetings where they already receive P40,000 per session.

On the one hand, management insisted that the rating system be utilized in determining who will get performance bonuses, as a result of of which 10 percent of the total employees of the SSS received nothing.

So the SSS board claims that they deserve the bonuses because of the billions of pesos in income that SSS made in 2012.  But in the same letter, it is claimed that the P200 billion in income of SSS last year was largely because of the compounded interests and penalties stealthily imposed upon the outstanding loans of the poor members of the SSS and secondly, the interests earned on the benefits of SSS members and/or their beneficiaries during that period when the benefits were credited to their account but could not be withdrawn because of instructions to hold them for several days.

It is about time that the entire SSS membership rally against a plan to raise the amount of contributions next year. The callousness  of our leadership to this issue only shows that this makamasa image of President Aquino and his administration is just all for show.

Maritime management program

The Asian Institute of Management (AIM),  in cooperation with Philippine Transmarine Carriers, Inc. (PTC), is launching the Executive MBA (EMBA) Maritime Management Program.

This unique industry-academic linkage between AIM and PTC intends to champion the advancement of maritime management education in the country and to provide maritime executives with the opportunity to acquire a solid foundation in the fundamentals of business and general management. Through real life cases and application, the program provides maritime professionals with the skills necessary for leading, building, and managing enterprises in a dynamic global economy.

The EMBA Maritime Management targets working professionals within the industry’s various clusters of ship owning, ship management and crewing, ship building, ship financing and insurance, ship registration and classification, and port operations, as well as those in the transportation and logistics sectors, who can foresee a continuing career both on shore, offshore, or/and on board vessels. Executives who wish to develop their competencies in the area of supply chain management will also benefit from the program by learning to utilize supply chain models as potential enablers in fulfilling business strategies.

Commencing in April 2014, the EMBA program will run for 18 months, combining both online and face to face sessions. 

As the first management school in Asia to be accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), AIM has been stamped with the global standard for business school quality within the international academic community. AIM utilizes the case method of learning, based upon the belief that management is a skill that is best learned experientially through simulations. Following this method, program participants will diagnose and discuss real cases involving different business functions and use actual business experience to sharpen their analytical skills.

With the Philippines at the forefront of the maritime industry in terms of seafarer supply, ship building, and international port operations, AIM and PTC hope to offer maritime professionals with an opportunity to share a wide range of experiences within a single and vibrant industry and remain competitive amidst new opportunities and challenges in the global maritime sector.

Interested parties may get in touch with the AIM Executive MBA at 975 8674 or 892 4011 local 2813 / 2815 or send an email to [email protected].

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