MANILA -- The enrolled bill implementing the fifth round of salary increases for government workers is ready for President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s signature, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) said on Wednesday.
"The enrolled bill on the proposed Salary Standardization Law (SSL) 5 has already been submitted to the Office of the President for evaluation and approval," DBM director Gerald Janda told Palace reporters in a press briefing.
"We will coordinate with the Office of the President. But rest assured that enrolled copy of the SSL 5 is already with the Office of the President for approval and signature," he added.
The proposed SSL-5 was approved by Congress in December last year after the President certified the measure as urgent.
Under SSL-5, the salary adjustment will be implemented in four tranches from 2020 to 2023.
Around 1.4 million workers in the government, including public teachers and nurses, are expected to benefit from the proposed pay hike.
The biggest increases, ranging from 20 to 30 percent by a weighted average of 23.24 percent every year until 2023, would apply to employees belonging to the Salary Grades 10 to 15 brackets.
Government employees with Salary Grades 1 to 10 would get an increased pay from 17.5 percent to 20.5 percent over four years.
Meanwhile, those who are under Salary Grades 25 to 33 would have the lowest increase of a mere 8 percent.
A total of PHP130.45 billion would be used for the implementation of the SSL-5.
Once signed into law, government workers would get pay hikes starting January 1 this year, Janda said.
'When signed into law, the first tranche of the increase in the salary of government workers will take effect starting January 1, 2020 and we have already provided in the 2020 GAA certain amount for the implementation of this under the Miscellaneous Personnel Benefits Fund," he said. (PNA)
