In Central Visayas Board approves P18 salary hike

CEBU, Philippines —  The Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board-7 approved yesterday a wage increase of P18 per day for minimum wage earners in Central Visayas.

Salome Siaton, chairman of RTWPB-7 and regional director of the Department of Labor and Employment-7, said the new minimum wage in non-agricultural establishments employing more than 10 employees will now be P404.

Meanwhile, the new minimum wage for agricultural establishments employing less than ten employees will be P396.

Siaton also said that the wage board approved to increase to P5,000 from the current P3,000 monthly salary of house helps in cities and first class municipalities in Central Visayas. House helps in other municipalities in the region will be getting P4,000 per month, or an increase of P1,500 from the current monthly rate of P2,500.

No Immediate Effect

Siaton clarified that the new wage order will not take effect just yet as it will have to be forwarded to the National Wages and Productivity Commission for review and approval.

From NWPC, it will be forwarded back to RTWPB-7 for publication in a newspaper of general circulation.

"The new wage order will take effect 15 days after its publication. As of now, hindi pa natin alam kung kailan ang effectivity kasi nga i-forward pa ang order sa NWPC (The new wage order will take effect 15 days after publication. As of now, we don’t know when it will take effect exactly because it will have to be forwarded to NWPC first)," Siation said.

Dissatisfied

The labor groups are not exactly ecstatic.

"Actually, we are not happy with this, but we consider this as a win-win solution," said Jose Tomongha who sits in the RTWPB-7 Board representing the labor sector.

In a separate statement, ALU said: "The Associated Labor Unions is deeply disappointed with this meager amount that the wage board came about. This amount will not help lift minimum waged workers from the stark high cost of living in the region."

The P18 increase per day is a far cry from the wage hike petitions filed by the Associated Labor Unions-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines and other five petitioners who asked for an increase of P386 and P150 per day, respectively.

The other five petitioners who filed a unified petition were the Cebu Labor Coalition, Lonbisco Employees Organization, Nagkaisang Lakas ng Manggagawa-Katipunan, Metaphil Workers Union and Unionbank Employees Association.

ALU demanded that the regional wage board show them the computation in arriving at the “incredulous amount.”

"We want to know what is the formula they've use to come up with the amount because there are very strong observations that this amount is not a by-product of an empirical evidenced-based discourse but by the fancy of greedy business and employers," ALU said. JMO (FREEMAN)