ANGELES CITY- The labor group Kilusang Mayo Uno condemned yesterday justifications issued by Social Security System (SSS) officials for the more than P10-million bonus they got in 2012 as “mere excuses” and “unacceptable.”
The KMU also lambasted the declared increase of the SSS premium contributions of its members amid records of the agency’s alleged dismal performance and its huge funds invested in various outfits, including risky ones.
“The imposition of a 0.6 percent increase in members’ premium contributions also point to the bad performance of the SSS executives as members pay their premiums dutifully and there’s no reason for the fund to go bankrupt,” the KMU said in a statement.
“The SSS may be increasing members’ premium contributions to increase funds that it will contribute to the government’s Public-Private Partnership program’s funds which go to big capitalists’ investments,” it also noted.
Jerome Adonis, SSS campaigns officer of KMU said in a statement that “as long as SSS members suffer from meager wages, contractual employment, violation of rights, and delayed and meager benefits, the agency’s executives do not have any right to amass huge sums from the workers’ money.”
“The main thing here is that SSS executives are handling workers’ money – money that’s paid for by workers’ sweat, tears and blood,” he stressed.
He said that “as far as SSS members are concerned, the agency did not perform well in 2012.”
Adonis cited a report of the Commission on Audit in 2012 indicating “slow processing and payment of death, disability and retirement claims did not meet the commitment of SSS of providing prompt, convenient and meaningful social protection service to the members and their beneficiaries.”
KMU, in a statement, said “the SSS leadership cannot brag about increasing the workers’ fund when it delays the release of workers’ benefits and penny-pinches on the amount of these benefits.” It again cited a COA report citing the failure of the SSS “to take legal steps in order to collect P367 million in unpaid premiums from employers, including 139 delinquent large-account employers.”
“It’s very diffi cult for workers to believe that SSS executives are doing their job well when benefits, meager as they already are, are being released late. Good performance in this case must be measured by improvements in members’ condition, not in mere increases in the workers’ fund which the SSS leadership can use in ways that won’t benefi t members,” Adonis said.
The KMU statement condemned SSS President-CEO Emilio de Quiros “for saying that the granting of the bonuses is moral on the basis that the agency needs to maintain people who can opt to work in the private sector.”
“If De Quiros and other executives of the SSS want salaries comparable to that given to their counterparts in the private sector, then they should resign immediately and go to the private sector. Government officials, especially SSS officials, should be driven by the spirit of public service, not greed,” Adonis said.
KMU also cited independent think-tank Ecumenical Institute for Labor Education and Research’s study saying that “SSS has a P350-billion investment reserve fund as of 2012 which the agency uses as equity investments in the business ventures of the biggest capitalists in the country.”
