PRESIDENT Duterte’s well-meaning but not carefully thought out pronouncements about substantial salary increases for teachers and police officers have created perturbations which will last for years.
In 2015 President Aquino introduced a three year ‘salary standardization law’ (2015-2018). This purported to create an equivalence between public and private sector employees. An impossible task. Issues such as security of tenure, merit-based promotions, and fringe benefits will always be different between the public and private sectors.
Furthermore, the results allegedly showed that the salary increases, though not substantial, should vary somewhat between the Salary Grades which comprise much of the public sector. Differentials are altered without clear justification.
***
President Duterte’s assertions that teachers should receive a salary of at least P30,000 per month must have caused shock, horror responses from those who administer the funds available. Education Secretary Dr Leonor Briones explained that since there are over 800,000 teachers, the increases proposed by Duterte would increase the salary bill by around P150 billion. Budget constraints make this impossible.
There are far fewer police officers than teachers. So when Duterte said he would double police officers’ salaries the impact on the overall salary costs are not as substantial for the police as for teachers. So entry level police officers, with a minimum age of 21, find that their salaries did double from well over P14, 000 per month to just over P29,000.
This, however, has created another problem which is that increments between police ranks have been compressed markedly. A long-serving police officer with 20 years exemplary service now receives around P34,000 which is only 20 percent above the salary of the inexperienced 21 year old recruit.
Sooner or later this untenable state of affairs will manifest itself with the more experienced police officer claiming, with justification, that the salary increments are inadequate.
The upside for those who serve the maximum possible length of service is that the police have an enviable pension scheme. The amount that is necessary to fund the scheme must be substantial. Although details of the scheme itself is in the public domain, the cost of its administration has not been disclosed.
***
A fully qualified teacher enters the profession in the position of Teacher I which corresponds to the government salary grade 11 (P20,754 per month). The heightened salary expectation of teachers combined with the budget impossibility of implementing large salary increases has created problems. A possible solution, though somewhat artificial, is to create more promoted posts so that teachers can have a better salary progression. Promotions from Teacher I (SG II) to Teacher III (SG13) (P25,232) are achievable though, for many excellent teachers, SG13 represents the present de facto ceiling.
Senator Ralph Recto has proposed better career promotion prospects but it is not clear when or if his suggestion would be accepted. His proposal created new ranks of Teachers IV, V, VI, VII, corresponding to SG 14, 15, 16, 17 and a salary rising to P36,942.
But since salary grades are as a result of a thorough job evaluation scheme, it is not clear that these new grades for experienced teachers can be justified which can only be accepted by additional responsibilities.
Can he justify seven levels of teachers whereas we only have three at present?/PN
