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Saturday, May 28, 2005
Wage hiked P15 in Metro Cebu
By Charmaine Y. Rodriguez
CEBU CITY -- Employees in Metro Cebu will be getting a P15 increase in their daily pay, while workers in the rest of Central Visayas will be receiving an additional P12 in minimum wage.
Labor groups asked for an increase of more than P70, but their representatives in the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board (RTWPB) 7 were outvoted, 4-2.
The approved amount was proposed by employer sector representatives Charles Streegan and Hidelito Pascual, with the support of Department of Labor and Employment 7 Director Rodolfo Sabulao and Department of Trade and Industry 7 Director Asteria Caberte.
The decision was reached after a three-hour, closed-door meeting yesterday. It was the wage board’s fourth meeting, following President Arro-yo’s order that adjustments in the daily pay be made by June 1.
They considered the erosion of the purchasing power of workers in the region, the expected effects of the expanded value-added tax (VAT) and the P1 fare increase, among other economic indicators.
Labor sector representatives Marianito Ventura and Ferdinand Pepito, who hoped for the approval of a P17 adjustment after the deadlock in the deliberations since Tuesday, will submit their dissenting opinion to the wage order.
‘Not enough’
The increase will take effect 15 days after its publication.
By then, the daily minimum take-home pay of workers in Metro Cebu will be P223, while employees from the rest of Central Visayas will be entitled to a P220 basic pay.
While labor groups said the amounts will not provide workers the economic relief they need, Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI) president Robert Go said the pay increase will hurt the region’s competitiveness and struggling industries, especially with the new VAT law.
Last Tuesday, majority of the members of the RTWPB 7 voted down the P78 proposal of the Associated Labor Unions-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (ALU-TUCP) and the P112 across-the-board adjustment sought by the Alliance of Progressive Labor.
Ventura and Pepito, who supported ALU-TUCP’s proposal but lost during the voting, feared the majority would only approve a P12 increase.
Still, Ventura described Friday’s results as “unsatisfactory” and lamented Caberte’s decision to vote in favor of the employers.
National Economic and Development Authority 7 Director Romeo Escandor, the other government representative in the RTWPB 7, didn’t make it to yesterday’s deliberations. He was reportedly sick.
Factors
However, RTWPB 7 secretary Exequiel Sarcauga, the board’s designated spokesperson, said they specifically considered the following points:
* The need to restore the eroded purchasing power of the peso, which fell by P7 since the issuance of the August 2004 wage order;
* The effects of the expanded VAT and the “projected although prolonged” P1 fare increase;
* The capacity of employers in the small and medium enterprises sector who compose 90 percent of industries and the workforce in Central Visayas to pay the increase;
* The need to generate jobs, specifically one million a year, in line with President Arroyo’s agenda;
* The need to maintain the country’s level of competitiveness in Asia, since it now trails Malaysia and is just “slightly higher” than Thailand; and
* The need to maintain the region’s wage level since it now ranks fourth in the country, following the National Capital Region, Region 4 and 3.
Cost of living
Sarcauga pointed out that the wage board merely set the floor wage for all industries, since skilled and experienced workers are already expected to be receiving higher than P223 and P220.
“Hastang paita (It’s disappointing),” Jaime Paglinawan of Kilusang Mayo Uno-Visayas said of the adjustments.
He cited that the cost of living for areas outside the National Capital Region, according to the National Wages and Productivity Board, is already P492 daily.
Paglinawan said they are preparing to lobby Cebuano lawmakers for a legislated P125 across-the-board wage increase, which is now pending before the House of Representatives and is being pushed by Rep. Eduardo Gullas (Cebu, 1st district).
After hearing RTWPB 7 members blaming each other for the results of the wage deliberations, Paglinawan said they are convinced to also push for the abolition of wage boards.
Warning
Earlier, Ventura of the Trade Unions of the Philippines Allied Services said that because of the apparent bias for the interest of employers, they will call for amendments to Republic Act 6727 or the law creating the wage boards, to strip government representatives in the board of their voting rights.
Ventura said government representatives have been “antagonistic to labor since time immemorial.”
For her part, ALU-TUCP spokesperson Joy Lim noted that the adjustments this year are so far the highest the RTWPB 7 has granted, but it is still way below the P20-P25 granted by other wage boards.
Go of CCCI, meanwhile, said industries will also have to prepare for the worst, since unlike last year, the economy has not been doing well since the first quarter.
“This (wage order) will exacerbate the situation,” he warned.
Aside from this, CCCI is also concerned about a provision in the expanded VAT bill, which imposes an additional three percent gross taxes on low margin products, like grocery items and gasoline, bringing a “big blow” to these industries.
(May 28, 2005 issue)
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