New wage rates for workers in BARMM set

COTABATO CITY — A regional cross-section wage board and the Bangsamoro labor ministry are now finalizing a new pay scheme for workers in the autonomous region for enforcement by February.

Two members of the employers’ sector in the Bangsamoro Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board, the lawyer Anwar Malang and the entrepreneur Haron Bandila, separately told reporters on Friday that members of the BTWPB and officials of the region’s Ministry of Labor and Employment discussed on Thursday the finalization of a new wage order for workers in the region.

“The meeting was attended by MoLE-BARMM representatives led by Labor Minister Muslimin Sema himself,” Malang, owner of restaurants and commercial function sites in this city, said.

The dialogue on wage increase, held at the Pagana Restaurant in Cotabato City, was also attended by Abuamri Taddik, who is BARMM’s trade minister.

The BARMM presently has a wage rate of P341 for non-agricultural workers and P316 for agricultural workers, that will increase starting month.

“We already had prior multi-sector consultations on that in many areas in the region. We shall have new rates by February 2024,” Sema told reporters via text message on Thursday morning.

BARMM region covers the provinces of Maguindanao del Norte, Maguindanao del Sur, Lanao del Sur, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi, and the cities of Marawi, Lamitan and Cotabato.