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Tuesday, July 18, 2006
Cabaero: Wage saga
By Nini B. Cabaero
Beyond 30
With thousands of people in the labor sector, a decision to increase the minimum daily wage is the most awaited. Then, as the decision is made, the reactions from the labor and business sides are as predictable as the minimal increase the wage board has always been brave enough to grant.
It is almost like a worn-out storyline.
Before the start of deliberations by the multi-sectoral body that would peg minimum wage levels, organized labor groups and business people were readying their respective positions. The subsequent negotiations were usually marked with drama, sometimes walkouts from the discussion table to make the point of the unfairness of the other.
Every year since 2004, the regional wage board has come up with an order to adjust the mandated minimum wage. And every year the story was the same.
The Central Visayas Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board approved last Sunday a P10 to P18 increase in the minimum daily wage, way below the demand of the labor sector for at least a P35 per day adjustment. The new minimum wage for Metro Cebu will be P241 a day, from the current P223. The adjustment is expected to take effect on Aug. 1, after publication of the order in newspapers.
Prior to that, in 2005, the board granted a P12 to P15 increase even as the labor’s demand was for P70. And in 2004, it granted P8 although organized labor asked for P50 to P65 more per day.
Each time the decision came down, all parties issued comments that were as predictable as the smallness of the amounts of increase.
Board head and Department of Labor and Employment 7 Director Elias Cayanong said the amount was “very small” but it would help workers cope with the seven percent inflation rate. Business leaders were not happy with yet another intervention by government as they wanted compensation to be settled at the company level through collective bargaining agreements.
Labor leaders were mad at the pittance granted them. Labor representative Marianito Ventura was quoted as saying after the decision, “They never understood our side, our difficulties in feeding our children. All they have in mind is profit, profit and profit.”
It is a good thing that, despite the rejection of original demands, parties to the negotiations expect each side to respect the process provided by law, abide by the decision of the wage board and hope for a more favorable result the next time around.
There is a test to whether the wage board erred or not. That test would happen in the next few days from when the new minimum wage takes effect. The test is if the minimal increase would lead to real improvement in the lives of laborers.
We all know the answer to that.
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (July 18, 2006 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
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