THE Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (Barmm) announced that the minimum wage earners in the region will receive wage increase after the Bangsamoro Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board’s (BTWPB) on Wednesday, November 13, approved Wage Order No. Barmm-01.
The BTWPB-Barmm official released Thursday, November 14, Wage Order No. Barmm-01, which provides a new minimum wage increase for non-agriculture and agriculture sectors in the Bangsamoro region.
The Wage Order’s Section 1 stated that all minimum wage earners of the private sector in the Barmm shall receive a basic wage increase of P20 per day for the provinces of Basilan, Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi, and the cities of Lamitan and Marawi.
Labor Minister Romeo Sema, who sits as BTWPB-Barmm chairperson, said the new minimum wage for non-agriculture and agriculture sectors in the five provinces and two cities are now at P300 daily and P290 a day, respectively.
Previously, the workers in the non-agriculture received P280 a day while agriculture, P270 daily.
Meanwhile, Sema said the workers in the non-agriculture sector shall receive P14 wage increase per day, while the agriculture sector shall receive P10 wage increase per day for those in Cotabato City and the 63 villages in North Cotabato, who opted recently to be part of Barmm.
From the P290 to P311 daily wages, the workers will now get a new minimum wage of P325 per day and P300 daily for agriculture and non-agriculture sector, respectively.
Section 2 of the Wage Order states that the order “applies to all minimum wage earners in the region, except family drivers, those employees in the personal service of another, and workers in registered Barangay Micro Business Enterprises with Certificates of Authority pursuant to RA (Republic Act) 9178.”
RA 9178 is otherwise known as the “Barangay Micro Business Enterprises (BMBE’s) Act of 2002.”
As stated in the Section 10 of the order, Sema said the following may be exempted for applicability of the new wage order: Retail and service establishments regularly employing not more than 10 workers; Distressed establishments; New business enterprises; and, Establishments adversely affected by calamities such as natural and human induced disasters.
Sema said that as per Section 13 of the Wage Order, “any person, corporation, trust of firm, partnership, association or entity which refuses or fails to comply to this Order, shall be subjected to the penal provisions under RA 6727, as amended by RA 8188.”
He said the wage order is a product of various public consultations organized by the BTWPB-Barmm which was participated in by several representatives from the employers and workers sectors of the Barmm’s five provinces, including the cities of Marawi and Cotabato.
Aside from Sema, the other members of the BTWPB-Barmm are the following: Executive Director of Bangsamoro Planning and Development Authority (BPDA) Mohajirin Ali, and Minister of of Trade, Investments, and Tourism (MTIT) Abuamri Taddik; vice chairpersons; Jonathan Acosta and Joyal Maquinto, workers’ representatives; and, Lawyer Joseph Go and Datu Haroun Bandila, employers’ representatives. (SunStar Zamboanga)