President Duterte signed the Salary Standardization Law of 2019 yesterday. As a review, this law was based on House Bill (HB) No. 5712 that was passed on the 3rd and final reading by the House of Representatives on December 18, 2019. The Senate passed their version on December 16, 2019.
It can be recalled that President Duterte certified this measure as urgent, which allowed the Congress to expedite its passage. Also, the both houses of congress no longer subjected the bill to a bicameral conference committee hearing as their versions were similar.
(Edit: This law is R.A. 11466 entitled “An Act Modifying the Salary Schedule for Civilian Government Personnel and Authorizing the Grant of Additional Benefits, and for other Purposes”)
Who are covered by SSL 2019?
The SSL 2019 covers all civilian government employees, regardless if they regular, contractual, casual, appointive or elective, and on full-time or part-time basis.
Also, this law provides that those who have rendered at least 4 months of “satisfactory service” and are still employed would be qualified to get a “Midyear bonus”, which is equivalent to one month salary as of May 15 of that year.
Are MUPs also covered?
The law explicitly provides in the Exclusion of Coverage portion, Section 4, which states that;
SECTION 4. Exclusions – the following shall be excluded from coverage of this Act:
(Edit: In HB No. 5712, this clause was placed in Section 3, but in the final, signed law – RA 11466, it can be found in Section 4.)
- Military and uniformed personnel (MUPs);
- Government owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs)
- Individuals whose services are engaged through job orders, contracts of services, consultancy contracts, and service contracts with no employer-employee relationship
It means that PNP personnel, among other uniformed peraonnel, are NOT covered by this increase.
How will it be implemented?
This salary increase will be implemented in 4 tranches that will grant an annual salary increase for gov’t workers from 2020 to 2023.
According to a report by Inquirer.net, around 1.4 million civil servants, including public teachers and nurses, are expected to benefit from the new law.
The same report said that employees under Salary Grades 10 to 15 would be granted the highest increase ranging from 20 to 30 percent while those under SG 25 to 33 would have the lowest increase of 8 percent.
Meanwhile, those under SG 1 to 10 would get an increased pay from 17.5 percent to 20.5 percent over four years.
This SSL 2019 will greatly benefit the teachers and nurses in the government, who for the longest time had been asking for this.
In PNP, the Non-uniformed personnel or NUPs stand to benefit from this salary increase.
The following is the full texts of the law:
