Gov’t contractual workers get P2,000 gratuity

MANILA, Philippines -  Non-regular employees also deserve recognition for their services in government, leading President Duterte to order yesterday the grant of a one-time P2,000 gratuity pay.

In a memorandum order, Duterte noted that the bonus is to give a “well-deserved recognition of their hard work.” 

All workers whose services are engaged through job orders and contracts of service and who have rendered a total or an aggregate of at least four months of satisfactory service as of Dec. 15, 2016 and whose contracts are still effective as of that date may be granted a one-time gratuity pay not exceeding P2,000 each, the memo said.

Those who have worked less than four months of satisfactory service as of Dec. 15, 2016 and with effective contracts of the same date may also get bonuses not exceeding P1,000.

Workers engaged through orders and service contracts or other similar schemes by national government agencies (NGAs), state universities and colleges (SUCs), government-owned or controlled corporations (GOCCs) and government financial institutions (GFIs) are covered by the memorandum.

“These workers do not enjoy benefits accorded to regular employees – like the mid-year and year-end bonuses, performance-based bonus and personal economic relief allowance, among others – considering that they have no employee-employer relationship with government,” it added.

Some government agencies and local government units have in previous years allowed the grant of certain benefits to workers covered by job orders and contracts of service in their respective agencies, the memo noted.