ELECTION PAY | Lawmaker hits lack of overtime pay for poll workers in barangay, SK elections

November 3, 2023 , 07:17 PM

By Clarist Zablan

(November 3, 2023) – A teachers’ group representative at the lower house of Congress on Friday decried the lack of overtime pay for election inspectors and poll workers who served in the recently concluded barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections (BSKE).

ACT Teachers Congresswoman France Castro said she will file a resolution seeking a congressional inquiry after the teachers were not given overtime pay because the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) has no budget for that.

“The Comelec should have included the overtime pay of teachers when they proposed their budget for the BSKE because now it is the teachers who rendered services are being shortchanged,” Castro said.

She also planned to ask for a supplemental budget for the overtime pay of the poll workers when the regular session resumes next week.

Earlier, COMELEC Chairman George Garcia said the election agency could not provide overtime pay to Board of Election Inspectors (BEI) and poll workers, who served more than 24 hours in the BSKE last Monday, because they did not have a budget set aside for it.

He also pointed out that a circular from the Commission on Audit (COA) and the budget department, which allowed only employees of an agency to claim overtime pay, constrained them from providing additional compensation.

But Castro said the circular did not expressly state that only the employing agency can be sought for overtime pay.

“On the other hand, it was the Comelec that authorized teachers to render overtime services (or at the very least, allowed/not prohibited). Plus, teachers (BEIs, poll workers) are deputized workers of the Comelec during elections,” she said.

In a letter to Garcia, the Teachers’ Dignity Coalition (TDC) asked for overtime pay for teachers who served as poll workers. It noted that the honoraria given to them were computed based on three days or 24 hours of continuous work during the elections.

“Still, many of our DepEd employees work beyond 24 hours and are thus entitled to overtime pay,” TDC national chair Benjo Basas said. “In previous elections, the Comelec has granted the same request. Even in the 2022 NLE (national and local elections), the Comelec allocated overtime pay due to delays.”

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