The Negros Occidental provincial government is processing the release of the gratuity pay for its 600 plus job order workers, but will not grant the Service Recognition Incentive (SRI) to its regular employees since the amount it can allocate is too small, Provincial Administrator Rayfrando Diaz said today, January 5.
The gratuity pay of JOs will range from P1,000 to P3,000 each depending on their length of service, he said.
The Negros Occidental Sangguniang Panlalawigan has approved P2 million for the gratuity pay of the JO workers, Diaz said.
He said they did not process the release of the SRI of the regular provincial government employees since they would be able to give about P1,700 each instead of P10,000.
President Rodrigo Duterte in separate in orders December allowed the granting of the P3,000 Gratuity Pay to JO workers and P10,000 SRI to regular employees of the government.
If the provincial government grants the P10,000 SRI to each of its more than 3,000 employees it will exceed the salary cap set under the Local Government Code by P27 million, which will be in violation of the law, Diaz said.
It can only spend P5,233,154 more for the SRI to avoid exceeding the cap, that would be about P1,700 for each employee, he added.
The provincial government employees received P40,000 each in extra benefits on top of their 13th month pay in December, he said.
Meanwhile, Diaz said the Negros Cooperative Bank turned over the building it was using at the Capitol Lagoon Park to the provincial government on December 29.
The building will be used by the Technology and Livelihood Development Center for the display and sale of Negros products, and for a coffee shop, Diaz said.*