Salary hike unlikely on May 1 – DOLE

MANILA, Philippines — Workers in Metro Manila and other regions nationwide are unlikely to get a salary hike on Labor Day after the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) yesterday ruled out the possibility that the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board (RTWPB) will heed the demand for an immediate wage increase.

“We only have today to call for a meeting. Based on the timeframe, we cannot announce a wage increase on May 1,” Labor Undersecretary Ciriaco Lagunzad told reporters.

Lagunzad said the RTWPB in the National Capital Region cannot also act on the petition of the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) for the granting of an across-the-board wage hike for workers in the region.

“The granting of an across-the-board pay hike, which means from the highest to the lowest employees, is beyond the jurisdiction of the wage board. The business of the government is to protect the most vulnerable workers,” he explained, citing the Supreme Court ruling that the wage board’s authority only covers minimum wage earners.

Lagunzad, however, said the board may later review the TUCP petition to determine if there is a supervening condition to warrant the granting of pay hike for minimum wage earners.

TUCP filed yesterday before the RTWPB a formal petition seeking a P710-per-day across-the-board increase for workers in NCR. It said that it would file similar wage hike petitions in other regions.

The group claimed that the P25 wage increase granted by the RTWPB last November has been eroded by the impact of the TRAIN law and that the prevailing minimum wage is now insufficient for workers in Metro Manila to live decently.

TUCP president Raymond Mendoza said minimum wage earners in Metro Manila are undernourished because their salaries are not enough to buy even the daily minimum nourishment requirement.

“Forcing workers and their families to subsist on nutritionally deficient meals for a long period will definitely have a bigger repercussion to business, bigger cost to government and the economy if continuously ignored,” he added.

Using economic indicators in the past as basis in filing the wage petition, TUCP opted to cite the daily food requirement as a major factor in demanding an immediate salary increase.

Lagunzad said the daily food requirement is being factored in by the wage board in determining the need for wage increase. It also determines whether a supervening condition necessitates a salary increase.

A supervening condition, he said, can be declared if there is a sustained and extraordinary increase in prices of gasoline and other basic commodities for a period of two to three months. The law prohibits the board from entertaining wage hike petition within a year from the last issuance of a wage order unless there is a supervening condition.

“If there is a supervening condition, the board can legally entertain the wage petition, if not the board can say there is no official basis,” Lagunzad added.

Meanwhile, Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Gen. Oscar Albayalde yesterday criticized the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) for tagging the police force as “anti-worker.”

He said it is the KMU that is causing troubles for workers in the country and that the group should be held responsible for driving away investors.

“Why are the investors leaving? The KMU will enter, instigate unions and then hold rallies,” Albayalde pointed out.

At a news forum in Quezon City over the weekend, the militant group released an anti-worker matrix of people and government agencies, which they believe contributed to the plight of workers in the country. It tagged the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the PNP in the matrix for alleged human rights violations against workers.

“It’s easy to say the AFP and PNP are violating human rights. What rights? Give specifics,” Albayalde countered as he dared the group to also condemn the atrocities of communist organizations and the New People’s Army.

The PNP will field around 8,400 police officers in Metro Manila to secure government and private institutions where militant groups are expected to hold rallies during tomorrow’s commemoration of Labor Day.

Maj. Gen. Guillermo Eleazar, National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) director, said a “no permit, no rally” policy will be imposed as he warned that the police would not hesitate to disperse militant and workers’ groups that would conduct “lightning rallies” along busy thoroughfares of Metro Manila. – With Non Alquitran, Emmanuel Tupas, Roel Pareño