BACOLOD City – The Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board (RTWPB) will hold the final deliberations on the proposed minimum wage increase in Western Visayas next week.
Labor representative Wennie Sancho said the board will already have a decision on October 21 and 22, after two-day discussions to be held in Iloilo City.
“By October 22, we will know how much the increase is,” he said.
The new wage order will then take effect 15 days after publication.
On July 1, the New and Independent Workers Organization (NIWO) – a rank-and-file union of Coca-Cola Beverages Philippines Inc.-Bacolod headed by Emmanuel Bandola – filed the petition for P50 to P60 wage increase as the existing Wage Order 24 already expired on July 16.
The group sought a P50 increase for workers in the plantation and non-plantation sector and PHP60 for commercial and industrial sector workers and included a special provision for P80 increase for workers in Boracay Island, Aklan.
Currently, minimum wage earners in Western Visayas receive P295 to P365 per day, including the cost of living allowance. In the last Wage Order 24, minimum wage earners received an additional pay of P13.50 to P41.50 per day.
Sancho, who is also the secretary-general of the General Alliance of Workers Associations in Negros Occidental, said private sector workers can expect a lower increase this year amid the opposition manifested by the management.
“We are bracing for an increase lower than P41.50 per day but not as low as P10 per day,” Sancho said. (With a report from PNA/PN)
