BARMM sets new daily wage rates for private sector workers

COTABATO CITY —The Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board in the Bangsamoro region approved on Thursday, June 26, a new salary scale for private sector workers in five southern provinces and the three cities under its jurisdiction.

Members of the RTWPB-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, led by its chairperson, BARMM Labor and Employment Minister Muslimin Sema, signed the new wage order at their office in Cotabato City, in the presence of reporters.

BARMM Chief Minister Abdulrauf Macacua was present when Sema, the board's vice chairman, Trade and Investment Minister Abuamri Taddik, the entrepreneur Haron Bandila, representing the employers' sector in the autonomous region, and his counterparts from the labor sector, Norlyn Odin and Jonathan Acosta, signed the wage order during the event, organized by officials of the regional labor ministry. 

The RTWPB-BARMM had set a P411 mandatory daily wage for non-agricultural workers and P386 for agricultural workers in Cotabato City, the capital of the Bangsamoro region.

The board, composed of representatives from the employer and labor sectors in the autonomous region, approved a P376 and P386 daily rate for agriculture and non-agricultural workers, respectively, in Maguindanao del Sur, Maguindanao del Norte, Lanao del Sur, Basilan and Tawi-Tawi provinces and the cities of Lamitan and Marawi.

Under the new wage order, agricultural and non-agricultural workers in the Bangsamoro Special Geographic Area, which comprises eight newly created towns in Cotabato province, Region 12, are to receive daily wages of P366 and P391, respectively, from their employers.

“This pay schemes were programmed by members of the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board in the autonomous region after extensive consultations with the labor sector and employers in the autonomous region,” Sema said.

Sema and Macacua, who is figurehead of the 80 seat Bangsamoro parliament, separately told reporters that they are thankful to the sectors that helped the RTWPB-BARMM set a new daily pay matrix for this year for agricultural and non-agricultural workers in the autonomous region.

The rates were P50 higher than the daily wages for agricultural and non-agricultural workers stated in the wage order that officials of the board approved on February 28, 2024.

“That is an across the board increase in the rate of wages we approved last year,” Sema said.