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| Philippine Government Employees’ Association (PGEA) |
Philippine Government Employees’ Association (PGEA) President Esperanza Ocampo said starting today their members will begin wearing black shirts to symbolize their complaint against the government’s inaction to their demand for additional pay.
PGEA is an affiliate organization of the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP), which covers employees in the public sector nationwide.
“As a form of peaceful dissent, all government employees will be wearing black-shirt and hanging black streamers in front of government offices to push for SSL 4 (Salary Standardization Law),” Ocampo said.
Ocampo threatened that should their demand fall on deaf ears or takes years before it gets acted upon, they will be forced to hold strikes.
She said the wage hike they are seeking will allow them to cope with the rising prices of basic goods and services.
“The government employees are praying hard that President Aquino will open his heart especially this yuletide season to the appeal of government employees to increase their salary,” Ocampo said.
PGEA has been calling on the government to begin negotiation for a new wage hike after the four-year effectivity of SSL 3 ended in 2012.
Under the SSL 3, which was approved by the previous administration in 2009, all pay grade levels in the government were increased by 12 percent.
Ocampo stressed that since SSL 3, the government has not yet granted them any pay increase.
She lamented the current administration even reduced their take home pay by increasing their taxable income.
PGEA spokesperson Glen Pastorfide said it hopes the government will listen to their request to hold dialogue on this matter early next year, before the start of the filing of candidacy for the 2016 national elections.
He said any later date would reduce the likelihood of the approval of the new SSL since lawmakers will already be preoccupied with the elections. - by Samuel Medenilla , Manila Bulletin
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