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Saturday, October 02, 2004
Dole monitors oil prices, cost of basic goods
By Marie Neri
* Any increase may prompt new round of wage hike
THE prices of petroleum products and essential commodities are being monitored closely by the Department of Labor and Employment (Dole) to determine if there could be another round of wage increases.
Labor Assistant Secretary Benedicto Ernesto Bitonio Jr. said while the law prohibits the granting of a salary adjustment twice within a year, there could be an exception when supervening events takes place.
"The focus of the department is of course to implement the new wage order and to continuously monitor the regions for any movements in the prices of basic commodities," Bitonio said.
However, he stressed that at present, there is no indication that there could be another round of salary adjustments to be granted since the prices of basic commodities and services regains stable.
"As of now, the conditions of the supervening events do not exist at this time," Bitonio said.
Citing implementing rules of the wage fixing body, Bitonio said supervening conditions could only happen if there are extraordinary increases in the prices of essential products and services and double-digit inflation rate.
Alex Aguilar, spokesman of the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) pointed out that there is no law that says a double digit inflation rate could be considered as "supervening conditions" to warrant any adjustment in the workers salary.
He said a five percent inflation rate already poses a negative impact on the workers' purchasing power.
"A five percent inflation is tantamount to a five percent erosion in the purchasing power of the workers' buying power, that's about P15 which means one-half kilo of rice or transportation fare.
"We don't need to reach a double-digit inflation to warrant an increase," Aguilar added.
Bitonio, for his part, said the only time that the government granted another wage increase within the same year was in 1991 or during the Gulf War.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipins (BSP) projected that the country's inflation rate would reach 6.9 percent last month.
Acting Labor Secretary Manuel Imson said there could another wage hike provided that there are indications of supervening events that would merit an increase in the wages of minimum wage earners.
Meanwhile, Aguilar said they are still studying the situation to determine whether to file and seek a new wage increase.
(October 2, 2004 issue)
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