Public hearings on wage hike petitions scheduled

CEBU, Philippines — The Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board-7 has scheduled four public hearings in Central Visayas on the minimum wage adjustment petitions filed by labor unions.

RTWPB-7 said that the first public hearing will be held on September 17 at the Bethel Guest House along Rizal Boulevard in Dumaguete City for the Negros Oriental and Siquijor areas.

The second public hearing will be on September 24 at the Cebu Business Hotel in Cebu City for the Cebu area, and the third public hearing will be on September 30 at the R and F Pension House in Bogo City.

The fourth public hearing will be held on October 11 in Bohol at the MetroCentre Hotel.

The two wage hike petitions were filed by the Associated Labor Union-Trade Unions Congress of the Philippines, the Cebu Labor Coalition, Lonbisco Employees Organization, Nagkaisang Lakas ng Manggagawa-Katipunan, Metaphil Workers Union, and Unionbank Employees Association.

The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines filed for a P386 increase, while the other petitioners want a P150 daily across-the-board wage increase.

TUCP partylist first nominee Raymond Democrito Mendoza earlier urged the RTWPB-7 to approve the said amount saying the workers are getting hungry.

This as the TUCP demands urgency to address the growing health problems citing that the current minimum daily wage only accords workers and their families nutritionally deficient survival meals.

TUCP is raising the issue of workers’ nourishment saying this has not been given attention as a glaring consequence of the supervening conditions such as the price hike of goods and services due to the train law and the compounding effects of excise tax on fuel.

In a statement, TUCP said that forcing workers and their families to subsist on nutritionally deficient meals for a long period will definitely have bigger repercussions to business and bigger costs to the government and the economy if continuously ignored.

“It is high time that government address the growing poverty felt by the Filipino people, and TUCP urges the RTWPB to act urgently and adjust the regional minimum wage as it is mandated to do,” the statement read. (FREEMAN)