LABOR WATCH
Bacolod Gov’t Workers
Slam Delayed GSIS Releases
Is this a case of adding insult to injury?
Overworked and underpaid government employees of Bacolod City complain not
just about the delay in the release of their dividends from the Government
Service Insurance System (GSIS) but also the meager amounts.
BY KARL G. OMBION
Bulatlat
|
Bacolod City
– For almost a month, electronic card (e-card) holders of the Government
Service Insurance System (GSIS) have been complaining about the slow
release of their annual dividends which are already low to begin with.
Ramon
Espinosa, spokesperson of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers-Bacolod, said
most government employees line up for several hours to withdraw their GSIS
dividends, which range from P600 to P800 ($11.45 to $15.27, based on
exchange rate of P52.385 per US dollar). Worse, he said, others have
complained that their e-cards are empty.
|
Educators and state employees stage
protest in Bacolod City.
Photo by Karl G. Ombion |
Espinosa
said that the long delay in withdrawals using the GSIS e-card is caused by
off-line automated teller machines (ATMs) of UnionBank of the Philippines,
the GSIS’ depository bank. According to him, UnionBank tellers would
advise e-card holders to wait or return the next day.
He stressed
that when the e-card program started last year, GSIS reportedly told them
they can withdraw from any bank. However, other banks do not honor the
GSIS e-card, Espinosa said.
He said his
group has been from the start opposed to the introduction of the e-card
system given the anomalies surrounding it. They also fear that the
computerization process may eventually lead to retrenchment of government
employees.
He said that
GSIS funds used to be with Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP), a
government bank. When Winstron Garcia assumed the GSIS’ top post, he
transferred all the accounts to UnionBank which is privately-owned.
Espinosa believed this was highly irregular.
According to
him, it is clear that the GSIS under Garcia “is just fooling us, and even
looting us of our contributions and shares.”
Espinosa
called on GSIS pensioners and all state employees to continue the fight to
remove Garcia from the post, and resist the GSIS’ corporatization plan
which is just a euphemism for a take-over of profit-oriented private
companies. Bulatlat
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