Monday, July 17, 2006
Cebu workers to get P18 hike
By Allan I. Varquez
CEBU CITY -- Starting August 1, the minimum wage in Metro Cebu will be P241.
The Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board (RTWPB) approved Sunday a P10 to P18 increase for minimum wage earners, despite objections from two labor sector representatives, who negotiated for an increase of at least P35 per day.
Board chairman and Department of Labor and Employment (Dole) 7 Director Elias Cayanong admitted the increase is “very small.”
But at least, he said, it will be enough to help workers cope with the inflation of 7 to 7.2 percent this year.
The decision allows the wage board to beat its self-imposed deadline Monday, but is expected to disappoint both business managers and organized labor.
Two organized labor groups have asked for an increase of P75 to P95 a day, across-the-board. Management groups, on the other hand, want no government intervention and believe that wages are best set at the company level, through collective bargaining agreements.
Director Cayanong said the implementing guidelines the wage board will release today will set a different rate for Metro Cebu, because companies outside that area might not be able to survive such an increase.
The increase takes effect 15 days after the publication of a wage order in local dailies Tuesday.
As approved, the minimum wage for Metro Cebu will increase by P18. Workers from Danao City in the north up to Carcar town in the south will earn at least P241 for a day’s work, from the present P223.
For other parts of Cebu, excluding the islands of Bantayan and Camotes, the pay increase is P15. The same rate applies to the provinces of Bohol and Oriental Negros, which Dole considers as Class C areas.
Workers in Siquijor Province and Bantayan and Camotes, Cebu will have to make do with a P10 wage adjustment.
Wage Order 11, which took effect last June 16, 2005, set the minimum wage for Metro Cebu workers at P223 and for the rest of Central Visayas, P220.
Cayanong said setting a separate rate for areas outside Metro Cebu is needed, to be fair to those earning less in their business.
But for labor representative Marianito Ventura, nothing beneficial or realistic was achieved. Workers will continue to suffer and the consumers’ purchasing power will remain the same, he said.
He and lawyer Jose Boquecosa Jr., the other labor sector representative, wrote “I dissent” on the board’s position paper to signify their protest.
The four other representatives—two each from management and government—all voted for the P10-P18 increase.
The Associated Labor Unions-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (ALU-TUCP) has been pushing for a P75 across-the-board rate, while the Association of Progressive Labor (APL) wanted P95.
Sunday’s meeting at the Dole 7 office focused on the alternative P35 increase that Ventura suggested.
In last Saturday’s meeting, he and Boquecosa failed to push for either the P75 or the P95 rate. The management sector representatives’ counter-proposal was P15.
In the end, National Economic Development Authority (Neda) 7 Director Marlene Rodriguez, Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Director Asteria Caberte, and the two management sector representatives rejected labor’s lowest proposal of P20 for all four provinces.
“They never understood our side, our difficulties in feeding our children. All they have in mind is profit, profit and profit,” Ventura said in an interview after the meeting.
He acknowledged, however, that although the increase will not suffice for the workers’ needs, a higher amount would trigger inflation and unemployment.
“Makatabang na, pero gamay lang (This will help, but only slightly),” he said.
This is the fourth time since 2001 that the wage board has ordered a pay increase in Central Visayas.
Last year, the approved increase of P12-P15 fell short of organized labor’s demand for P70. In 2004, organized labor asked for P50-P65 more per day, but the board ordered only P8.
The last increase before that was in April 2001, when the RTWPB ordered an increase of P15 a day, but released in three installments of P5 each.
So far this year, the largest approved wage increase is for P25 a day, for workers in the National Capital Region. (Sun.Star Cebu)
(July 17, 2006 issue)
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