P832-M performance bonus for gov’t workers hit

MANILA, Philippines - Government employees have assailed the P832 million for the performance-based bonuses of 18,000 state workers.

Ferdinand Gaite, Confederation for Unity, Recognition and Advancement of Government Employees (COURAGE) national president, said the bonus is deceptive and divisive.

“Government employs 1.4 million, a majority of which are lowly paid civil servants earning way below their family’s keep,” he said.

“The purported 18,000 who received the performance-based bonus (PBB) do not absolve nor reverse the anti-employee policy of the Aquino government, including its policy that is violative of the public employees’ right to collective negotiation agreements.”

Gaite said the timing of the announcement could not have been more inauspicious, coming a few days before the Holy Week when people are expected to visit their families in the provinces.

“It’s like rubbing salt to the wounds of the employees who barely had to think about the holidays since they are more preoccupied with having to survive their day to day existence,” he said.

“The announced bonus would benefit not even one percent of the state workers. Moreover, it came at a time when employees are battling notices of disallowances and order of refund of benefits already disallowed by the Aquino administration.”

 Gaite said the patronage system deeply entrenched in the bureaucracy makes an objective evaluation of an employee’s performance impossible.

“The bigger reality is that the government is replacing the collective negotiations agreement where employees sourced additional benefits to augment their meager pay,” he said.