Author Topic: No wage increase in Central Visayas  (Read 780 times)

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No wage increase in Central Visayas
« on: August 10, 2007, 11:56:44 PM »
By Wenna A. Berondo
The Freeman

There would be no wage increase this year as the regional wage board yesterday junked a petition seeking an additional P75 across the board for workers in Central Visayas.

The decision of the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board came out few days after the wage board of the National Capital Regional granted an increase of P12 to the workers in Metro Manila.

During yesterday’s deliberation, the members of the RTWPB 7 voted 3-2 in favor of the junking of the proposal for an increase.

Only six members of the wage board were present during the deliberation yesterday because Department of Labor and Employment regional director Elias Cayanong, who sits as board chairman, is in Manila for an important engagement.

Department of Trade and Industry-7 director Asteria Caberte presided over yesterday’s deliberations.

In an interview over GMA-7 Cebu’s TV news program Balitang Bisdak, Caberte said that they have to divide the house and vote whether to grant the petition or not.

During the votation, she added, there was also no counter-proposal for the adjustment of the amount.

“The members of the board voted three against two to deny the petition,” she said. As acting chairman of the board, Caberte would have only voted in case of a tie.

After the decision was made, workers immediately lambasted the members of the wage board and called for the abolition of the body since they are pro management.

Jose Tomongha, chairman of the Alliance of Progressive Labor hit at Caberte and another government sector representative, Marlene Rodriguez, of the National Economic Development Authority and accused them of “sabotage.”

“Gitamparos sa government agency ang labor sector ilabi na ang DTI ug NEDA, ilang gihimo nga makaluluoy ang mga trabahante. It’s very unfair to us,” he said.

He added that the government should be favoring them and not the businessmen.

He instead demanded for the government representatives at the RTWPB to come out with computations why the workers should not be given a wage increase.

Citing extraordinary increase in prices of petroleum products, transport fares, and high cost of basic commodities, the Association of Labor Unions filed for petition seeking a P75 across the board wage increase for the wage earners in the region few days before the Labor Day celebration last May 1.

On the other hand, the Alliance of Progressive Labor filed a separate petition asking for P136.20 increase only this July.

But Caberte said, they have given consideration to the reason of the business sector that granting of wage hike is not timely because it might only worsen the situation of the already struggling companies and may result to more closures and loss of jobs.

“We always look at the merits of the petition if there is need for increase this time,” she explained. But she added that during their deliberations yesterday, they have agreed that there is no need to increase the pay of workers in the region but only to strictly implement the previous wage order.

Exequiel Sarcauga, assistant DOLE regional director and RTWPB board secretary said that they have received a lot of complaints that many of the employers in the region are still not implementing the minimum wage law.

Presently, the daily minimum wage for workers in Central Visayas is pegged at P241 but many workers are still receiving much lower wages.

“We agreed for the implementation of the existing wage order and with this development, we denied the petition,” Caberte said. She added that they have also urged the management sector to police their own ranks to comply with the existing wage order.

The present order — Wage Order No. 12 — was implemented in August last year.  It gave the workers in the region P18 increase in the daily minimum wage.

Aside from this, Caberte said that they also looked at the present economic situation of the region, which she said shows that “it is not time for wage increase” because it is not healthy for the business sector.

Atty. Hidelito Pascual, one of the representatives of the management sector in the RTWPB said that instead of across the board wage increase, they encourage the employers to implement salary increase based on productivity.

During the public hearing, the Confederation of Philippine Exporters Foundation (Philexport) in Cebu, Mactan Export Processing Zone Chamber of Exporters and Manufacturers, Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Cebu Furniture Industries Foundation, Azucarera de Bais, among others are one in their position in strongly opposing the proposed hike in wages in the region.

They said that companies here, which are already affected by the strong peso, will lose whatever competitive advantage they have over other countries in the Asian region where labor and production cost is cheaper.

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