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MOST of
the country’s wage boards are now convened to deliberate
on a probable increase in the minimum wage after
all—except for four—of the 17 bodies declared there is a
“supervening condition” to increase salaries, allowing
them to reconvene even before the one-year requirement
for any new deliberations can be called had lapsed.
Ciriaco
Lagunzad III, executive director of the National Wages
and Productivity Commission, said at the sidelines of
the Labor Day celebration at the World Trade Center that
only the wage boards in Cagayan Valley, the Cordillera
Autonomous Region, Zamboanga Peninsula and Davao have
yet to declare there is ground to entertain petitions
for a salary hike.
“We’re
expecting that before the end of the month there will be
wage increases in Regions 3 [Central Luzon], 4 [Mimaropa
and Calabarzon], 7 [Central Visayas], and in the
National Capital Region. We’re hopeful by the end of
June all of the regional wage boards would have made
their decision,” added Lagunzad.
By May
13, public hearings will be held for the Metro Manila
wage petition where an P80 across-the-board pay hike has
been sought by the moderate Trade Union Congress of the
Philippines (TUCP). Lagunzad said a decision on this
petition could come within a day or two after the
hearings.
Asked if
the board would grant the same amount as asked by the
TUCP, the NWPC chief replied, “Historically, the wage
board gives lower than the petition.”
TUCP
spokesman Alex Aguilar said, “We’re expecting it should
be higher, considering there is the declaration of the
supervening condition and everything is rising...if the
regional wage boards will give lower than last year, I
think they are up for abolition.”
Aguilar
said an acceptable increase would be around P46 if the
current inflation rate is taken into account, adding
that the wage boards should be “careful” in assessing
the wage petitions and stop favoring employers above the
toiling workers.
Lagunzad
reported that in
Eastern Visayas the militant Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) has filed a petition
seeking P125 in salary adjustment. “This might indicate
that they’d like to participate [in the process].”
The KMU
has been pushing for a P125 legislated salary adjustment
for years, but kept snubbing the wage boards and trying
to obtain it through other means such as mass
demonstrations.
Senate
Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. of PDP-Laban, on
the other hand, said profitable private business firms
must take the initiative in raising the compensation of
their workers without waiting for a wage-hike order from
the government.
Pimentel
said employers should be socially responsible to share
the profits of their business operations with their
workers, especially at this time when the value of their
take-home pay continues to be eroded by the spiraling
prices of rice, oil and other essential commodities.
“It
would be unconscionable on the part of employers to deny
to their workers a just and equitable share of the
profits of their companies during these difficult times
when they can hardly cope with the rising cost of
living,” he said.
He said
such voluntary upward adjustment of workers’ benefits
should be practiced, especially by establishments where
workers are not unionized and therefore are not in a
position to engage in a collective bargaining agreement
with employers.
Pimentel
said it is encouraging to note that the Employers
Confederation of the Philippines and Philippine Chamber
of Commerce and Industry have expressed support for an
increase in the minimum wage even if a great number of
their member-employers have been hit by a business
slump. |
