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PRESIDENT Arroyo on Wednesday ordered the Regional
Tripartite Wage and Productivity Boards to work overtime
in determining new wage levels in the country, even if
it means deliberating on wage hike petitions on May 1, a
nonworking day.
Press
Secretary Ignacio Bunye said in a statement that the
President issued the directive through Labor Secretary
Marianito Roque.
“President Arroyo today [Wednesday] reminded the
regional wage boards of the urgency of setting new wage
levels taking into account rising commodity prices.
[She] instructed Labor Secretary Marianito Roque to ask
the RWBs [regional wage boards] to work overtime, even
if it means they have to work on May 1, a nonworking day
for the rest of the country,” Bunye said.
At the
same time, a group of managers endorsed the grant of a
P40 to P125 increase in wage and tax relief to workers,
but “only through the wage boards.”
The
People Management Association of the Philippines (PMAP)
on Wednesday supported moves to increase workers’ wages
because of the current price increases in basic goods.
Gerardo
Plana, PMAP’s executive director, said in a press
briefing Wednesday the country has reached a “unique
economic situation” where an adjustment in workers’
salary is needed as he also urged businessmen to “invest
on their people’s resources.”
Asked
what is a viable wage adjustment for the country’s 37
million workers, Plana said, “Anything between P40 to
P125” depending on each region’s situation.
PMAP,
the country’s largest professional organization of
managers and human-resource executives, also supported a
proposed tax-relief measure for minimum wage earners in
Congress which they say would automatically give labor
an equivalent of P40 daily-salary adjustment.
“A tax
relief will mean an additional take-home pay of P40 a
day for minimum wage earners or P1,000 pay hike monthly
and this will go a long way for our poor workers,”
explained PMAP president Enrique Abadesco.
Sen.
Loren Legarda said the
Philippines
could definitely afford a new round of wage increases
for private-sector workers, and still stay highly
competitive.
Legarda
cited the 2008 survey by the global financial services
giant UBS AG, which showed workers in
Manila
receive the third-cheapest wages worldwide.
Only
workers in Jakarta and Mumbai get wages that are lower
than those received by workers in Manila, according to
the UBS survey of 70 cities around the globe.
Based on
the UBS poll, the top 10 cities where workers enjoy the
highest wages are (ranked No. 1 to 10):
Zurich,
Geneva, Luxembourg, Berlin, Dublin, Frankfurt, Auckland,
Los Angeles, Munich and Oslo.
The 10
cities where workers have the lowest wages are (ranked
No. 61 to 70): Bucharest, Mexico City, Nairobi, Kiev,
Bangkok, Sofia, Delhi, Manila, Mumbai and Jakarta.
In an
interview at the Temic Automotive Philippines, Inc.
factory in Taguig City, where the President conducted a
visit, Roque said labor officials are currently in talks
with executives of big companies to push for the grant
of nonwage benefits to their employees. So far, the
results have been promising, he said.
The move
is in line with the Chief Executive’s call for big firms
in highly profitable sectors to extend nonwage benefits
to their workers, like shuttle services and other forms
of subsidies, to help them cope with rising livings
costs.
“We’re
discussing it with big companies. So far they have been
very receptive. It’s just an improvement of existing
programs or improvement in the CBA,” he said.
Abadesco
said the measure would exempt an estimated half million
minimum-wage earners from paying income taxes.
Besides,
Abadesco added, the P600 million collected by the Bureau
of Internal Revenue from minimum wage earners
constitutes less than one percent of the total
compensation income collected by government annually.
The
Labor department earlier said the government is
preparing a package of benefits for workers that may
include tax exemptions for minimum wage earners. It said
a possible announcement of a salary adjustment may not
come on Labor Day but may be approved between May and
June.
Six
regional wage boards have already received wage
petitions as labor unions clamor for pay adjustments,
arguing that their purchasing power has been cut by
rising prices of commodities.
Legarda
said Filipino workers in both private and public sectors
definitely deserve “upward pay-rate revisions” to enable
them to cope with soaring food and fuel prices.
“If we
look at
India,
wages there are rising an annual rate of 17 percent, so
we still have the comparative advantage in terms of cost
of labor,” Legarda said.
Like
India, the Philippines has been attracting global
corporations that require ample supply of inexpensive,
English-speaking staff, particularly in information
technology-enabled services, such as business-process
outsourcing. |
