Cebu Rep. Rodrigo Abellanosa has refiled a bill mandating all employers to pay a 14th month salary to their employees.
Abellanosa filed House Bill 402 or the proposed “14th Month Salary Act” to provide additional benefits for the country’s working class.
“Our workers have continuously fought for sufficient wages that will provide their families with comfortable lives.
Their battle, having seen small victories, though has yet to be won,” he said in the bill’s explanatory note.
He noted that recently, the government has taken the first step in making his proposed 14th month pay possible for government employees through Executive Order 201 signed in February this year.
“We cannot leave our privately-employed workers empty-handed, can we?”
Under HB 402, Abellanosa proposed that all employees, regardless of the nature of employment, be paid a 14th month salary every year, in an amount equivalent to the 13th month pay.
He noted in 1976, Presidential Decree No. 851 institutionalized the 13th month pay in recognition of the masses of the masses’ continuous struggle to provide the needs of their families and in recognition to the culturally ingrained tradition in the Philippine society of celebrating the Christmas holidays. (Charissa M. Luci)
