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THE
Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Boards (RTWPBs)
are currently studying the possibility of increasing the
salary of workers following the continued surge in oil
prices and basic commodities.
Ciriaco
Lagunzad III, executive director of the National Wages
and Productivity Commission (NWPC), said the country’s
17 wage boards are now assessing if there is a need to
approve an increment, taking into consideration
“regional socioeconomic indicators.”
Lagunzad
stressed that the decision to approve a wage hike will
depend on the regional boards’ assessment of workers’
needs and the capacity of employers to provide for an
increase while keeping business—also precarious owing to
rising costs—alive.
“There
should be a balance between providing a decent standard
of living for workers and ensuring the survival and
viability of business, more so, of small and medium
enterprises,” said Lagunzad.
Malacañang earlier said it is in favor of a wage
increase for workers as the rise in oil prices and other
commodities affect Filipinos’ purchasing power.
As a
rule, petitions for a wage hike should wait for a year
after the last order to increase pay, but the wage
boards may also exercise their mandate to fix salary
rates even before the 12-month expiration period if
there is a “supervening condition,” according to
Lagunzad.
Last
year, the National Capital Region’s wage board approved
a P12 increase on the daily pay of workers in Metro
Manila, fixing the monthly minimum wage at P362.
Wages in
Metro Manila have been adjusted 15 times since 1989,
with increments ranging from P12 to P26.50.
The
Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) is set to
file a petition for a P60 across-the-board wage increase
this month after noting that workers’ purchasing power
has been eroded by successive price increases of basic
goods. |
