Tuesday, August 14, 2007 Wage board hears P75 wage hike bid By Danilo V. Adorador III
CITING the need to fix wage distortion, a nationwide labor group filed for a P75 salary hike petition for Northern Mindanao.
Nicandro Borja, who filed the petition in behalf of the Associated Labor Union-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (ALU-TUCP), said "the 75-peso increase is essential if workers are to cope with increasing prices of commodities and cost of living."
The Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board (RTWPB)-Northern Mindanao is set to hear the petition starting Tuesday.
In asking for the P75 adjustment, the group invoked RTWPB's wage fixing functions, and said its petition is based on prescribed wage adjustment rules.
Since the creation of the RTWPB in 1989, wage distortions remain as prices grow by 3.58 times within the period until early 2007, said Borja, who is the group's regional vice president.
In 2006, RTWPB-Northern Mindanao approved a P16 to P18 wage hike, but the group noted in its petition that "the increase has been overtaken by extraordinary increases in the prices of petroleum products, transport fares, and in basic goods and services."
Based on official statistics, prices had gone up by 1.02 times since the last increase in July 2006 until February 2007, according to ALU-TUCP.
Official Consumer Price Index (CPI) data reveal that in order to fix the distortion, a salary increase of P89 was needed.
However, the group said it "appreciates the negative effect of an immediate P89 increase of only P75 in the daily minimum."
ALU-TUCP filed the petition as early as May, but shelved it for further study, according to an employee of RTWPB-Northern Mindanao who requested anonymity.
Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro tried but failed to reach any official of the Oro Chamber of Commerce and Industry Inc. (Oro Chamber) for comment as of Monday.
According to a Department of Labor website (http://www.nwpc.dole.gov.ph), wage fixing factors include the demand for living wage, wage adjustment vis-à-vis CPI, cost of living and changes therein, needs of workers and their families, improvements in standards of living and the capacity to pay of employers/industry.
