• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
The Sangguniang Panlalawigan (SP) of Negros Occidental unanimously approved on Tuesday the P85 million worth of benefits and incentives for regular, casual, contract of service (COS), and job order (JO) employees, who are expected to receive these before Christmas Day.
Provincial Administrator Rayfrando Diaz II said on Wednesday that regular and casual employees will receive P20,000 each for Service Recognition Incentive (SRI) while the P7,000 gratuity pay will be released to COS and JO employees.
Of the approved P85 million, P60 million has been allocated for SRI, P20 million for gratuity pay, and P5 million for the Negros Occidental Comprehensive Health Care Program (NOCHP).
Diaz said the P5 million payment to NOCHP is for the year-end executive health check-up of all COS and JO workers since they are not covered by the health insurance granted to regular employees.
Last week, the provincial government released the P30,000 Collective Negotiation Agreement bonus to regular and casual employees.
Diaz said he directed the Information and Communications Technology Division to activate the payroll system for the release of the gratuity pay and SRI to Capitol workers.
He added that they are still awaiting the guidelines from the national government on the release of the P5,000 Productivity Enhancement Incentive. | GB
