Betty Terlaje
ALTHOUGH certain key positions are vacant, the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. continues to serve the public, CUC acting Executive Director Betty Terlaje said on Friday.
“CUC is still operating where it needs to be,” she added. “We have key vacant positions that are critical in moving operations, but that is not stopping us. We are still meeting our priorities, so that we continue to move and not affect our customers.”
She said CUC has a lot of good employees.
“They might not hold titles, but they know what they are doing, and I trust them,” she added. “The staff know what to do, and everything is still in place. The staffers are really the key to the operations of the facilities…and we are functioning and operating.”
Hazard pay
On Friday, the CUC board of directors approved CUC management’s recommendation to raise the hazardous premium pay for certain CUC employees to 10% from 5%.
Present in the meeting were CUC Board Chair Janice Tenorio, members Rufo Mafnas, Allen Perez, Donald Browne, Frank Lee Borja and Simon Sanchez, who appeared via videoconference.
Terlaje said the “type of position will determine whether the employees will get hazardous pay for every hour they work…. It is determined by their level of exposure to hazard. For example, power plant staff are exposed the whole day, so they’ll get the full hazard pay.”
The hazard pay, she added, “is for our employees that work out in the field or in the power plants that are exposed to hazardous conditions.”
“They deserve it, they need to be compensated in that kind of environment,” Terlaje said.
Night differential
The CUC board also approved a $1.50 an hour night differential pay for employees who work the night shift.
“It’s difficult to work graveyard, from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m.,” Terlaje said. “So if a line crew has to go out at, for example, 10 p.m. to restore power, they get that night differential, $1.50 an hour, on top of their base rate. I want our employees appreciated because they work hard,” she added.
