- CHERYL G. CRUZ & MITCH M LIPA
The Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board in Western Visayas deemed valid in a meeting early today the petition for a P355 increase in the daily minimum wage in the region, filed by the Fishta Union of Employees for Reforms through Solidarity Actions (FUERSA-Super) based in Bacolod City.
A public consultation will be held in Negros Occidental on April 8, Iloilo, Guimaras, Capiz and Antique on April 11, and in Aklan, to include the workers in Boracay Island, on April 12.
“This is the first step of the process. We validated the legality of the petition as to the capacity of the petitioner,” DOLE regional director, Atty. Sixto Rodriguez Jr., said of the petition for a wage hike filed by FUERSA-Super on Feb. 24 this year.
Rodriguez, who is also the chairman of the RTWPB 6, said the wage board will determine the merits of the petition through the series of public consultations immediately scheduled considering the urgency of the matter.
During the RTWPB meeting, FUERSA-Super president Jesel Gayanelo presented a certification proving that the labor union is registered with the Bureau of Labor Relations, thereby making the petition valid in form and substance.
The meeting was also attended by Regional Director Rebecca Rascon of the Department of Trade and Industry as RTWPB vice chair, and representatives from the workers and employers sector.
Wennie Sancho of the labor sector said they hope that the petitioner can sustain and present the computation for the P355 petitioned amount to restore the living wage of the workers in the region.
The management sector may submit their counterproposal or opposition during the scheduled hearings in the different provinces, he said.
He added that the RTWPB will deliberate the exact amount to be added to the daily minimum wage on April 22 and 23.
The current daily minimum wage rates in Region 6 range from P310 to P395 in the agriculture and non-agriculture/industrial/commercial sector. It took effect Nov. 26, 2019.
Sancho said an addition to the current salary rates would be a great help to minimum wage earners as they face the burden of escalating prices of basic commodities.
The RTWPB 6 and other wage boards are feeling the pressure and sense of urgency to come up with a wage adjustment as ordered by the National Wages and Productivity Commission and DOLE Secretary Silvestre Bello III.
Sancho said he believes that the RTWPB would announce the new daily minimum wage rates during the observance of Labor Day on May 1./MML, CGC
