Wage hike untimely says PBGEA

THE Philippine Banana Growers and Exporters Association,Inc. (PBGEA) requested members of the Regional Tripartite Wage and Productivity Board to defer the petition of a national trade union for P75 wage adjustment in the region.

The P75 daily adjustment to the minimum wage was proposed by the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) last March 2. PBGEA president Stephen Antig said the petition is untimely since the banana industry has suffered shortfall in production due to the dry spell, power shortage and declining foreign exchange earnings.

The region’s export banana industry is so deliberated by the dry spell with production levels drastically cut by 40%,Antig said.

He said even if the climatic conditions return by June as the weather bureau predicted, banana companies will still struggle to return to their normal revenue projections.

It will stake most farmlands a year to recover and return to its normal level of productivity,he added.

Antig said the shortfall of the production gave rise to the resurgence of pole vaulting or predatory pricing by dishonest buyers who attract small growers in the region to breach their contacts with corporate buyers.

Last March, the TUCP with affiliated federations composed of individual workers and employees engaged in all types of agricultural, industrial, and service activities including the informal economy and domestic work in the country passed a petition for granting of P75 daily from 265 minimum wage to 340 new wage rate for all workers of agricultural and non-agricultural sectors in the Davao Region across-the-board.

Democrito Mendoza, president of TUCP, said the continuing increases in the prices of petroleum products, transport fares, and in basic good and services have great impact on workers’ daily living.

The world and the country have started to recover form the crisis and its only right for wages and wage workers to catch the wave of recovery, he said, adding the adjustment is expected to contribute to rising local demand for goods and services that would stimulate economic recovery.

“All workers in the region,regardless of whether they receive minimum wages or higher ,are subject to the same prices in the market and the same increases in prices of commodities,” he said. –Castromayor , Emilord