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Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Petition filed vs P15 wage hike for W. Visayas
By Erwin Ambo S. Delilan
BACOLOD CITY -- Labor groups filed Tuesday their consolidated opposition against the newly approved P15 wage increase for Western Visayas before the Department of Labor and Employment (Dole).
The Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board (RTWPB) in Western Visayas approved the P15 wage increase that would be released in the form of emergency relief allowance (ERA) until October this year.
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Wennie Sancho, president of the Federation of Free Workers (FFW) and the workers' representative to RTWPB said: "The issuance of WO 16 granting a measly P15 per day ERA on May 22 marked another dark chapter in the history of the workers' struggle for a decent and living wage in the region."
"It's an insult to workers and further degrade their dignity as human beings, and at the same time, to enjoy a decent living as enshrined in Article XII of the Philippine Constitution," stressed Hernane Braza.
Braza is secretary-general of National Congress of Unions in the Sugar Industry of the Philippines-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (Nacusip-TUCP), and a RTWPB representative.
"RTWPB should be ashamed of the P15 daily wage hike," said Ronald Ian Evidente of Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU), while Teofilo Agravante Jr., president of Labor Power Council (LPC)-Negros, said: "Labor Regional Director Aida Estabillo is making fun with herself in her admission that supervening conditions indeed exist when they decided to release an ERA."
Sancho, who is still hoping for a breakthrough on the wage hike in Western Visayas, said other members of RTWPB who voted for and signed WO 16 should re-evaluate themselves and start focusing on the issue of wage and economy as instrument of progress and not as instrument of perpetrating misery, frustration and disenchantment to the workers.
"If RTWPB won't act on our opposition, we might be compelled to elevate this to the National Wages and Productivity Commission (NWPC) for proper action," Sancho added.
"Essentially, no wage increase was ever done by RTWPB since it issued WO 14 in 2006 because even WO 15 only adjusted the wages of those who do not receive the P235 ceiling," Agravante said.
Braza, on the other hand, said the granting of a P15 per daily wage hike through ERA "is a sign of greediness or oppressiveness against the working masses, and not a partner in business."
He presented their own computations of the supposed wage hike rates to be approved such as P93 per day for commercial/industrial establishments employing 11 or more employees, P125 per day for establishments or commercial establishments and plantation business having less than 10 employees, and P135 per day for non-plantation business.
However, Braza said: "Suffice it to say the Nacusip-TUCP had only demanded for P50 per day so that employers or establishments can afford to grant it, and at the same time, can keep the probability of its business."
"As a collective voice of labor, we vehemently opposed the issuance of WO 16 by not affixing our signatures as a symbol of protest to this added form of injustice to the destitute workers," Sancho added.
"We don't want to be privy to this unjust decision. We did not sign the new wage order which is a document of oppression."
Agravante, on the other hand, reiterated LPC-Negros' call for the region's working class "to expose the ineptness and bankruptcy of RTWPB and pursue their demand for the abolition of RTWBs."
He added: "any increase in wages should be legislated, national in scope and across-the-board." (Sun.Star Bacolod/Sunnex)
For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Bacolod. (May 28, 2008 issue)
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