Council asks Garcia to release JOs unpaid service pay, wages

The Cebu City Council called on outgoing Cebu City Mayor Raymond Alvin Garcia to release the unpaid service premium pay and salaries of job-order (JO) employees that have not been distributed since October 2024.

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Councilor Noel Wenceslao, chairman of the Committee on Budget and Finance, raised this concern in a privilege speech he delivered during the Council's regular session yesterday.

As a premise, Wenceslao recalled that on May 22, 2024 the City Council approved Ordinance 2744, "An Ordinance Establishing and Instituting the Grant of Job-Order Service Premium to Job-Order Personnel in Cebu City."

For this year, Wenceslao said the City appropriated at least P50 million for the release of the service premium.

Section 4 of the ordinance provides the guidelines on the JO Service Premium, which enables all JO employees of the City of Cebu to receive a service premium pay not exceeding P5,000 in the months of May and November each year.

Wenceslao enumerated the guidelines, saying that the grant of the premium benefit shall be subjected to the declaration of propriety by the local chief executive and the availability of funds of the City of Cebu.

He added that JO personnel must have rendered at least a total or aggregate of three months of satisfactory service, as certified by their respective department heads, as of April 30 and October 31 of every year.