Wednesday, October 03, 2007 Exempt us, exporters ask RTWPB By Malou m. mozo Sun.Star Staff Reporter
CEBU’S export industry will have to carry another burden on its shoulders after the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board (RTWPB) 7 granted the P5 to P9 increase in the minimum wage.
While a group is seeking an exemption from the implementation of the wage order, another one is projecting that more workers will lose jobs when the new minimum wage takes effect this month or just weeks away from Christmas.
Seaweed Industry Association of the Philippines president Benson Dakay said with the wage increase, he estimates five more seaweed processors will eventually close shop before the year ends.
He said five seaweed processors--Dahon Dagat Inc., King Agro-Marine Products, Geltech Hayco Inc., Philippine Carrageenan and Natum Corp.-- have shut down.
Dakay, who is also chief executive officer of Cebu-based Shemberg Corp., is concerned that the adverse effect of the wage hike will mean retrenching 30 percent of his workers.
He said 10,000 to 20,000 factory workers of small and medium enterprises in the seaweed processing industry have already lost their jobs due to the strengthening of the peso against the dollar, the softening of the US market, the low supply of raw materials and environmental conditions and high fuel cost, among others.
In addition, the peso’s appreciation has already resulted to the closure of 38 furniture companies to date, which led to the displacement of 6,000 workers, the Confederation of Philippine Exporters (Philexport)-Cebu reported.
“I’m afraid that half of the seaweed exporters will not be around next year. This is really bad timing. Dili dapat hilabtan ang mga exporters,” he told Sun.Star Cebu (They should spare the exporters).
Objection
Dakay said the wage hike should be implemented only in booming industries like information technology, electronics, retail and domestic manufacturing companies.
He said SIAP will voice out its objection to the new wage order through Philexport-Cebu.
In a separate interview, Philexport-Cebu president Jay Yuvallos said the organization will again seek for a temporary exemption from the wage hike and present its formal appeal to the RTWPB 7’s scheduled emergency meeting next week.
Yuvallos, who described the board’s decision as “untimely,” said while it is “unfortunate” that Philexport-Cebu’s previous appeal for a 12-month exemption was not approved by the wage board, he is keeping his fingers crossed for a reconsideration this time.
“We explained it very clearly to them in layman’s term but it’s unfortunate that they did not grant our appeal. I don’t want to preempt the coming meeting but sometimes you don’t need a complicated analysis to an explanation,” he said.
“In as much as we wanted to contribute to the plight of the workers but the blows are coming left and right. This is not good for an industry that is supposed to be the backbone of the national economy,” he added.
Yuvallos said, though, that he cannot quantify the number of workers expected to lose their jobs this year.
But he believes that the wage increase, which is expected to raise the minimum pay to P250 per day, will have a negative impact on the industry.
“It’s not a question of how many will be retrenched but on how long after will we bounce back from these setbacks,” he said.
