A day care worker’s dream finally came true.
For 22 years, Barangay Pasong Tamo Teacher Precy Linag, 55 years old, has been a contractual employee under the city’s Social Services and Development Department.
But now, Linag is one of the 254 employees, mostly working as contractuals for more than 20 years, who can enjoy regular employee status under the Quezon City Hall after hurdling the Human Resource Merit Promotion and Selection Board (HRMPSB) hearing.
This is after Mayor Joy Belmonte ordered the city’s regularization processes to be fast-tracked and be done periodically beginning last year, fulfilling her thrust to provide job security in the local government.
“Excited po ako na sa wakas mararanasan ko na ang maging permanent employee. Matagal ko na itong pinapangarap (I am so excited that finally I will become a permanent employee. I’ve dreamt of this for so long),” said Linag.
Linag recounted that in the last 20 years of her career, she has been receiving a monthly salary of P5,000 to P10,000 which she described as meager and barely making ends meet.
She added that it was only under Belmonte’s term that her salary was raised to P13,000 after the mayor signed a memorandum circular bumping the salaries of contractuals to a “livable” rate.
According to Ronald Tan, officer-in-charge of the QC Human Resource Management Department (HRMD), among the recently regularized were Linag and 30 other city hall employees who were working as contractuals for 9 years or longer, but with short-term renewable contracts that denied them the security and benefits of regularized employees.
“The delay in the regularization of some of our employees may be attributable to the fact that the previous administration conducted screening and regularization only at the end of their term,” said Tan.
Aside from security of tenure, regularized government personnel receive fringe benefits, 13th month bonus, performance-based bonus, and allowances.
“The time has come for QC to depoliticize appointments and promotions and adhere to meritocracy,” Belmonte said, emphasizing that her administration abides by merit and fitness as determined by the Human Resource Merit Promotion and Selection Board (HRMPSB).
“We ought to give our deserving and hardworking city hall employees the security of tenure and all entitlements prescribed by the law. And we hope that this will motivate them to become more productive civil servants,” she added.
Members of the HRMPSB include first- and second-level employee representatives while Belmonte and Vice Mayor Gian Sotto are the appointing authority and the chairperson for the city’s Executive and Legislative Departments, respectively.
Other members of the board include head of departments, Majority Floor Leader of the QC Council Franz Pumaren or his authorized representative, Minority Floor Leader Eric Medina or his authorized representative, Chairperson of the Sangguniang Panlungsod Committee on Civil Service, Appointments, and Reorganization and the Head of the Human Resource Management Department.
