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Thursday, June 29, 2006
Editorials: Wage hike: again, not much?
That the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board (RTWPB) in Metro Manila has raised the minimum wage of workers there is both good news and bad news for their colleagues in other regions, especially in Central Visayas.
Good news: With the issuance of the wage hike order in the National Capital Region, the local RTWPB will be pressured to come up with it’s own wage hike ruling---or no more dilly-dallying there.
Bad news: The wage hike was pegged at only P25 daily, and with RTWPB 7’s history of not granting a salary increases higher than its counterpart in Metro Manila, what the workers in the region will get will be definitely lower.
It also does not help any that only the Associated Labor Unions-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines and minor groups have stuck with RTWPB 7, with the other labor unions and federations opting to pin their hopes for bigger wage hike on Congress.
This is the reason why the deliberations of RTWPB 7 have not created so much buzz or sparked a controversy unlike in the years past.
Which means that if the RTWPB 7 wants to regain its luster as a relevant wage hike pegging mechanism it must not only speed up the decision making process but also improve on its history of giving what workers perceive as crumbs for wage hikes.
Of course, it’s appalling
What lawyer Gloria Lastimosa-Dalawampu said about the condition of the Bagong Buhay Rehabilitation Center (BBRC) is actually nothing new; almost everybody who visits the facility goes away with heads shaking.
Unless you’re a regular, like Warden Efren Nemeño, the jail guards, Cebu City officials, when the constant exposure to the sorry sight already numbs your feeling of righteous indignation.
Indeed, the situation inside that jail is appalling, and it has been so---and getting worse---for, what, a decade already?
But it’s good that Dalawampu went to BBRC as an official of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines Cebu City chapter because the lawyers’ group can then help increase the pressure on those concerned to speed up the transfer of the inmates to a better jail.
As what has already been pointed out, the time for talking on the BBRC problem has long been over and even the period for concerned officials’ to act is long overdue.
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (June 29, 2006 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
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