The Baguio City Council, in its special session on December 31, passed an ordinance adopting Administrative Order No. 46 which authorizes the grant of gratuity pay for Fiscal Year 2021 to job order and contract of service workers in the city government.
The Local Finance Committee already issued a certificate that a fund in the amount of P6 million is available to cover the said grant.
The administrative order was issued by President Rodrigo Duterte, through Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea, on December 29, 2021.
Section 5 of the said administrative order provides that local government units are encouraged to adopt in their respective offices the grant of the said gratuity pay and utilize appropriate available funding sources.
The AO stipulates that all workers whose services are engaged by the city through contract job order and contract of service, who have rendered a total or an aggregate of at least four months of satisfactory performance of services as stipulated in their respective contracts as of the 15th day of December 2021, and whose contracts were effective as of the same date, may be granted a one-time gratuity pay not exceeding P5,000.00.
Those who have rendered less than four months of actual satisfactory performance of service may also be granted the one-time gratuity pay on a prorated basis as follows: three months or more but less than four months – not exceeding P4,000.00; two months or more but less than three months – not exceeding P3,000.00; and less than two months – not exceeding P2,000.00.
According to the AO, job order and contractual workers do not enjoy the benefits accorded to regular government employees as they have no ‘employer-employee relationship’ with the government. Thus, a year-end gratuity pay to these workers is a well-deserved recognition of their hard work, the AO said.
In 2020, an administrative order was also issued authorizing the grant of gratuity pay to job order and contract of service workers for Fiscal Year 2020. **Jordan G. Habbiling
