“Don’t do the austerity [measures] holidays because in the first place you are supposed to pay them right in accordance with the rate scale and position description,” Pangelinan, said, referring to the administration.
Pangelinan, D-Saipan, said based on her independent study and review of the government’s hiring process as well as job positions and corresponding salary rate, there are different pay scales under one job title.
“We have to know the jobs behind the numbers,” she stated. “You cannot say that you have 14 administrative assistants, and three are being paid $12,000, four are being paid $15,000, two are being paid $24,000, and five are being paid $50,000.”
The senator wants to know the differences in these job titles, adding that government agencies cannot have one title with different salary grades.
Pangelinan also noted that some agencies hire a number of individuals only to “farm out” these employees to other agencies.
“You have one agency with 20 employees [for instance], but that agency doesn’t have the 20 employees,” she said.
Some agencies try “to beat the system” by hiring persons and putting them as “ungraded” category so they can offer higher salaries than the rates prescribed by the civil service system.
She said the government should observe the wage structure under the civil service system where the positions and the pay scales are established.
“Let’s correct the wage structure first,” and employees who have been farmed out should be “put in their proper places,” Pangelinan suggests.
