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THE
businessmen’s call for the grant of nonwage benefits
instead of a wage hike continues to snowball as domestic
manufacturers vowed to even volunteer in giving their
workers several kinds of nonwage relief during these
abnormal times.
Jesus
Arranza, president of the Federation of Philippine
Industries (FPI), said basing wage increases on the
current food crisis and increasing prices is a mistake
that employers will have to bear even after the
situation has stabilized.
“Whatever wage increase we will give today will no
longer be pulled out once the situation has normalized,
so we are advocating for nonwage benefits,” said Arranza.
He said
FPI members, spread over 40 industry groups and 60
corporations, are ready to give subsidies for rice and
canned goods and additional transportation allowances
pending conclusion of debate by workers and employers on
what to base measures for cost of living and
productivity.
“We do
not have to wait for the wage boards to come out with
new wage orders to help ease the burden of our workers,”
he said as he urged the wage boards not to settle for
“half-cooked studies” in determining wage increases
because such could cripple industry.
Debates,
he said, should continue until there is a number that
both employers and employees really agree on. Coming up
with a haphazard wage order would only defeat the
purpose because those companies that will not be able to
afford will just ask for exemption, anyway.
On the
part of the government, Arranza said the state should
allow companies to purchase rice from the National Food
Authority (NFA) at the subsidized price so they could
distribute them for free to minimum wage earners.
Earlier,
the Joint Foreign Chambers also espoused the grant of
nonwage benefits instead of wage hikes, fearing that
increasing the daily pay of workers will only make the
country less competitive as an investment destination.
The JFC
said the country is already a laggard in terms of
attracting investments in the region because of the
already considerably high level of wages here.
The
National Wages and Productivity Commission (NWPC) has
already declared the existence of “supervening
conditions” in Metro Manila and other regions in the
country so it could entertain petitions for wage hikes
even if the 12-month moratorium for a new wage order is
yet to expire.
Consultations were also launched by the different
regional wage boards and the formal public hearing for a
wage increase in Metro Manila had been set on May 10.
The
Employers Confederation of the Philippines (Ecop)
earlier supported the call of President Arroyo for a
wage hike. But it has since showed signs that it is
already backtracking from this after its two
representatives in the NWPC opposed the resolution
declaring the existence of supervening conditions.
For the
wage boards to entertain wage hike petitions before the
expiration of the 12-month moratorium, supervening
conditions like extraordinary increases in prices of oil
and other basic commodities and services must be
declared by the NWPC. In Metro Manila, the last wage
order was issued in August 2007. |
