Saturday, August 11, 2007 Groups call for compliance
BUSINESS groups in Cebu agreed to heed calls made at the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board (RTWPB) for companies to comply with the daily minimum wage set by the previous wage order.
“We support and encourage the idea,” said Mandaue Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) president Eric Mendoza. But he urged the Department of Labor and Employment to check companies that violate wage orders.
“We in MCCI can only do so much. It has to be the government agencies that will actively pursue that,” he said.
RTWPB Secretary Exequiel Sarcauga earlier said there is high level non-compliance of the daily minimum wage.
Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) 7 Director Asteria Caberte confirmed earlier that there is a “low” rate of compliance of wage orders in the region.
While the RTWPB has not approved recent petitions for wage increase, Sarcauga said there is a clamor for compliance to previous wage orders.
Although MCCCI has not conducted any formal surveys on its member-companies, Mendoza assured that “since most of them are big companies, I’m sure they have been complying.”
Campaign
With the denial of the petition for increase, Caberte is asking industry organizations like the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI), Cebu Filipino-Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Mactan Export Processing Zone Chamber of Exporters and Manufacturers to meet and conduct a “very serious campaign” for the compliance of previous wage orders.
Jose Ng, CCCI trustee and Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry vice president for Visayas, said both chambers will “strongly lobby” among its members for strict implementation of previous wage orders.
“We will ask all our members to comply and give all the other social benefits such as SSS (Social Security System), Philhealth Care and Pag-ibig, among others, to their workers,” he said in a text message to Sun.Star Cebu.
Ng said he hopes that the labor sector would understand why the management of companies cannot grant wage increases with the current economic situation.
Relief
Local business groups, including Cebu exporters, heaved a sigh of relief after RTWPB rejected last Thursday the petition for salary increase filed by two labor groups.
The business groups cited losses suffered by exporters as a result of 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 where the cost of living is presumed to be lower.
Aboitiz Construction Group chief executive officer Roberto Aboitiz, on the other hand, said while he is not in favor of wage increase at this time, the management of companies must consider the plight of workers by providing them productivity bonuses.
He said that with the low salaries of workers he could not blame many Filipinos who go overseas to work, thus causing most companies to lose high skilled workers.
He urged companies, especially those who are earning well, to “pay competitive salaries, enhance competitiveness through skills upgrade and do profit-sharing.”
“Invest in the talent of your people,” he added. (MMM)
