BACOLOD City – The Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board in Western Visayas will deliberate on the proposed daily minimum wage increase after May 21, the end of the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan election period.
The wage board set the deadline of submission of position papers from the labor and management sectors that day.
It conducted the final public hearing on the wage hike proposal at the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) Negros Occidental field office last Thursday.
“The deliberations are going to be ‘bloody,’” said DOLE regional head Johnson Cañete, who also chairs the wage board.
Workers and business groups from different provinces in Region 6 have varying views on the wage hike proposal, Cañete stressed.
The Philippine Agricultural, Commercial and Industrial Workers Union – Trade Union Congress of the Philippines filed the wage hike petition on Jan. 22.
It seeks wage increases between P130 and P150, depending on the workers’ classification.
“It is going to be difficult for us to come up with a wage order that could satisfy both the management and labor sectors,” Cañete said.
He added that there has been a disagreement on the amount of the increase.
Wage Order No. 23, which expired on March 16, prescribes a daily minimum wage rate of P323.50 in non-agriculture, industrial and commercial establishments employing more than 10 workers.
Those employing less than 10 workers have a prescribed daily minimum wage rate of P271.50.
In the agriculture sector, the daily wage rates for plantation and non-plantation workers are P281.50 and P271.50, respectively.
Cañete said they hope to issue a new wage order by June 12.
The new wage order must be fair and thus needs a thorough discussion, the DOLE regional head stressed.
“We have to make sure that the wage increase would not affect the prevailing conditions in Western Visayas. As a (wage) board, we decide in favor of not just one group but both parties,” Cañete said.
The technical supervision of the DOLE and other member-agencies – including the Department of Trade and Industry and the National Economic and Development Authority – is also needed.
The Tripartite Industrial Peace Council is proposing a wage increase of only P20, mainly to recover the cost of inflation.
The Metro Bacolod Chamber of Commerce and Industry, meanwhile, wants to have a P10 to P31 wage rate hike, inclusive of cost of living allowance (COLA) worth P5.
Herman Santos, manager of Confederation of Sugar Producers, said sugar planters have no capacity to pay the proposed P130 to P150 increase, considering that the industry has been greatly affected by the low prices of sugar within the last two years.
“Where shall we get the desired increase of the labor sector?” said Santos, adding that they can only provide P10 to P15 COLA two months after the start of milling season in September. (With a report from PNA/PN)
