THERE will be no wage increases in Central Visayas for this year.
The Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board (RTWPB) yesterday rejected petitions for a salary increase filed by two labor groups.
The board, voting 3-2, ruled against ordering an increase, citing losses suffered by exporters with the strengthening of the peso against the dollar and the high cost of business operations.
The minimum wage stands at P241 a day in Metro Cebu, but is less in other parts of the region.
The board, however, recognized the “high level of non-compliance” with the previous wage order and decided to strictly monitor companies.
At the start of yesterday’s deliberation by the board, labor representatives Jose Boquecosa of the Associated Labor Unions (ALU) and Marianito Ventura of the Trade Unions of the Philippines and Allied Services (Tupas) moved for the approval of their respective wage increase petitions.
ALU sought a P75 across-the-board increase while Tupas demanded a P136.20 hike.
Tie-breaker
Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) 7 Director Asteria Caberte presided over yesterday’s deliberation in the absence of RTWPB 7 Chairman and Department of Labor and Employment 7 Director Elias Cayanong.
Caberte then opened voting on the increase.
Lawyer Hidelito Pascual and businessman Charles Streegan, management representatives to the board, voted against it. The two labor representatives then voted in favor of the petitions.
Director Mylene Rodriguez, of the National Economic Development Authority (Neda), broke the tie and voted against granting a wage increase. Rodriguez had earlier presented to the board a report on the high economic growth in Central Visayas, particularly in Cebu.
Ventura, in an interview, said that while he agrees that exporters are facing problems because of the strengthening of the peso, they failed to recognize that workers are also suffering.
“They (employers) want a moratorium on wage increase. However, there is no moratorium in the increase of prices of basic commodities. So, where is fair justice here?” Ventura said.
Numbers
Ventura said that when the peso depreciated in past years, exporters were raking in huge profits without sharing with their workers.
Boquecosa said he was saddened and disgusted because their arguments were ignored and the RTWPB decision was forged through “a tyranny of numbers.”
Pascual and Streegan said the RTWPB gave more weight to the arguments of exporters that their companies suffered because of the increasing value of the peso against the dollar and the high cost of operations.
Sun.Star Cebu failed to get the comment of Rodriguez because she immediately left after the denial of the petitions.
RTWPB Secretary Exequiel Sarcauga said a pressing issue that repeatedly cropped up during wage board deliberations was the high level of non-compliance with the daily minimum wage set by the previous wage order.
“They (RTWPB members) would like that before anything else, they have to make sure first that issuances and previous orders have been complied with,” Sarcauga said.
Campaign
Sarcauga, who is also an assistant director at Dole 7, said their department only has a few labor inspectors to enforce compliance with wage orders.
Workers, he said, also do not report that they are getting less than the legal wage, for fear of reprisals. “Since the management is asking for no increase, the RTWPB in return suggested to them to police their ranks and tell their members to follow the previous wage order,” Sarcauga said.
Although she did not participate in the voting, Caberte said she is convinced that now is not a good time for increasing salaries, especially in the exports sector.
Caberte said that with the denial of the petitions, RTWPB decided to ask all sectors on the management side, including the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Cebu Filipino Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Mepzcem Inc. to meet and start a “very serious campaign” for the compliance of existing wage orders.
“In the consultations that we had in the provinces, it surfaced that although we have wage orders, the compliance rate is quite low. So, although there is a denial of the petitions, the board will have a serious campaign for compliance of existing wage orders,” Caberte said. (EOB)
