C. Valley, W. Visayas workers get wage hike

MANILA, Philippines - Workers in Cagayan Valley and Western Visayas got their Labor Day gifts early after the National Wages and Productivity Commission (NWPC) reported yesterday that the wage boards in the two regions have approved new wage increases.

NWPC executive director Ciriaco Lagunzad said the wage board in Cagayan Valley approved the granting of a P10 increase in the daily basic pay of minimum wage earners as well as the integration of a previously approved P15 cost of living allowance (COLA) into the daily basic rate.

He said the Cagayan Valley wage board issued the new wage order “motu propio” or without any formal petition from labor groups in the region.

Lagunzad said the wage board in Western Visayas also granted minimum wage earners a P12 increase in their daily take-home pay.

The wage boards in the Bicol, Calabarzon and Socsksargen regions earlier had approved wage hikes for local workers.

Workers in Davao, meanwhile, will start getting an additional P10 COLA on May 1. They got a P5 pay increase last January.

The wage boards in the Cordillera Administrative Region, Ilocos region and Mimaropa are now conducting consultations and are expected to issue new wage orders before Labor Day, said Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz.

The Southern Mindanao wage board is set to implement on May 1 a P10 increase in the COLA of regional workers, who initially got a P5 COLA hike last January.

In Central Visayas, lawyer Ernesto Carreon, one of the labor representatives in the regional wage board, said workers would not likely get any wage hike on Labor Day.

Carreon said the one-year ban on new petitions for another round of wage hike is still in effect in Central Visayas. The regional wage board last approved a wage increase in September 2011. – With Edith Regalado, Mitchelle Palaubsanon/Freeman News Service