State workers to get 10% pay hike by July

National government employees will get a pay raise equal to 10 percent of their basic salary by July this year by virtue of Executive Order 611, which President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo signed Thursday. In a statement sent to the media, Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya said the EO also provides for pay adjustments for the government's uniformed personnel, who, aside from the 10 percent raise, will also be getting an additional P1,200 in their monthly allowance at the beginning of July. Uniformed employees include soldiers, policemen, jail guards, firemen and Coast Guard personnel. Once the pay hike takes effect, Andaya said a Teacher I, which occupies Grade 10 in the 33-grade government pay scale, will get roughly P1,000 more a month, while a Teacher II, a notch higher in the salary ladder, will get a pay increase of P1,054 a month. Andaya said the P10.3 billion needed to cover the pay adjustment is already provided for in the the P1.126-trillion 2007 national budget which President Arroyo also signed on Thursday. Of the P10.3 billion for the pay raise, Andaya said P8.2 billion will go to the "across-the-board" ten percent adjustment for the government's approximately 839,757 civilian employees. The remaining P2.1 billion, on the other hand, will go to the increase in the subsistence allowance" of the government's uniformed personnel. This translates to an increase of approximately P60 to P90 each person, a day. The amount also covers the doubling of their hazard pay from P120 to P240 a month. In the case of employees of local governments and government corporations, Andaya said their pay raise will be charged against their respective operating budgets. "When these are insufficient, partial increase can be granted proportionately," Andaya said in the statement. Andaya said the pay hike is not meant to court the public sector vote in May. "The election has nothing to do with it. This was prompted by good fiscal numbers," Andaya said.-GMANews.TV