FOR local business group Metro Bacolod Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MBCCI), the proposal to require private companies to pay their rank-and-file employees a 14th-month pay will lead to laziness on the part of the workers.
It may also deter business growth, its chief executive officer Frank Carbon said.
"It will not invite businesses to grow," Carbon said, adding that "what is needed maybe is incentive or productivity bonus, not a 14th-month pay that will make workers to just wait instead of encouraging them to work hard."
Senate Bill No. 2 filed by Senate President Vicente Sotto III has been pending in the Senate since July 2016.
It proposes that employees regardless of their employment status or designation are entitled to 14th-month pay, as long as they worked at least one month during the calendar year.
The MBCCI said it will support the move of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) to oppose the proposal.
Carbon pointed out that "it is too much" as the management in the region has just increased the basic pay with a substantial amount in additional cost of living allowance (Cola).
Carbon said aside from 13th-month pay, establishments have already been giving many incentives, bonuses and allowance like rice, uniform, paternity, and maternity leave, among others.
"We are not amenable as it will result in more pay without productivity scenario," he said, adding that "that is not the way you grow business, growth comes from hard labor."
Citing the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), the business leader further said that "if workers will just keep on receiving, nobody wants to work now."
Earlier, the General Alliance of Workers Associations (Gawa) has urged Negrense lawmakers to support the move to provide 14th-month pay.
Considering the high prices of basic goods and services, the labor group said that there should be a supplemental income like in the form of 14th-month pay for the workers in the private sector.
"It is a welcome development for us in the local labor sector," its secretary general Wennie Sancho said, adding that "employees in the government have been enjoying many perks that can also be shared to private sector workers."