- CHERYL G. CRUZ
The Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board in Western Visayas said Thursday it will hold a public hearing on the salary hike petition on Oct. 5 at the National Economic and Development Authority office in Iloilo City.
Workers in the private sector, kasambahays, employers, and other interested parties are invited to the public hearing, and must confirm their attendance on or before Sept. 29, through rtwpb6@yahoo.com, or call (033) 3205864 or (034) 3293523, the RTWPB6 said in an advisory.
Department of Labor and Employment 6 regional director, Atty. Sixto Rodriguez Jr., who chairs the RTWPB6, earlier said they started the regionwide stakeholders’ consultation on the petition filed by the United Labor for Western Visayas and the Iloilo Pepsi Cola Workers Independent Union for a P100 wage recovery at the NEDA conference room July 20.
For Bacolod City and Negros Occidental, the consultation with labor, management, and business sectors, held at the Sugar Workers Development Center, Negros Occidental Field Office in Bacolod last month, was led by RTWPB6 co-chairpersons, regional director Arecio Casing Jr. of NEDA, and DTI regional director Ermelinda Pollentes.
The consultation aims to come up with “a fair and just wage adjustment that will benefit both the employers and the workers,” Rodriguez said.
“Through this consultation, we hope to gather insights from you which will shape policies that are grounded in the actual needs of the workers and the current economic situation, and give us the idea of how to approach and address wage concerns,” he had said at the initial stakeholders’ consultation.
The workers’ sector said the P100 wage hike petition is based on the impact of the inflation rate to the purchasing power and the value of the peso, which was at P.81 when the petition was filed.
The wage recovery would compensate the losses in their salaries, adding their present income could not cope with the high transportation expenses, tuition, and school needs.
But the business and management sector claimed that raising the salaries of workers could stagnate or slows down business activities. They also underscored the high cost of production, and suggested that the salary increase should be based on productivity or performance.
The current daily minimum wage in Western Visayas, including in Bacolod and Negros Occidental, is P450 for companies with more than 10 workers, P420 for those employing 10 or less workers, and P410 in the agricultural sector. Household workers, or kasambahays, should be paid P4,500 a month.
The last wage hike took effect June 5, 2022./CGC
