More Mindanao regions raise wages

THE REGIONAL wage boards of Caraga and the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) have ordered increases in daily minimum wage by P20 and P12, respectively, the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) said in a press release yesterday.

Metro Manila led this year’s round of minimum wage hikes with a P22 increase that took effect at the start of last month.

It was followed by Western Visayas (Region VI) with P15, Davao region (Region XI) with P21, and Northern Mindanao (Region X) with P25, consisting of P13 in the base pay and P12 in cost of living allowance (COLA).

In particular, the wage board in Caraga (Region XIII), granted a P10 increase in basic pay and a P10 COLA.

Thus, workers in Caraga’s non-agriculture sector will now receive P243, those in agriculture will get P213-P233, while those in retail and services will get P213-P243.

In the ARMM, the latest raise will bring the daily minimum wage to P222.

National Wages and Productivity Commission (NWPC) Executive Director Ciriaco A. Lagunzad III said in a phone interview yesterday that this means six of 10 wage hike petitions in nine regions have been decided.

The remaining ones consist of one petition each in the regions of Cavite-Laguna-Batangas-Rizal-Quezon (Calabarzon or Region IV-A), Occidental and Oriental Mindoro-Marinduque-Romblon-Palawan (Mimaropa or Region IV-B) and Zamboanga (Region IX), as well as two petitions in Central Visayas (Region VII).

“[The] ARMM wage order [was] issued without petition or motu propio,” Mr. Lagunzad explained via text, referring to the decision of the wage board to regularly review macroeconomic conditions affecting workers even without a formal petition.

Labor Secretary Rosalinda D. Baldoz said in the statement that the wage orders will be published upon approval by the NWPC and will take effect 15 days from their publication in a major newspaper.

Unacceptable

In a press statement yesterday, the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU), which has called for the dissolution of the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Boards and for a legislated P125 across-the-board increase for all workers, assailed the recent wage orders which it described as “very scanty and insulting.”

“The regional wage boards, to which President [Benigno Simeon C.] Aquino [III] has entrusted all decisions regarding wage amounts, have again demonstrated what their true mandate is: to maintain wages at very low levels and not really to review and decide upon needed wage increase,” the statement quoted KMU Executive Vice-Chairman Joselito Ustarez as saying.

“We vow to push the nationwide legislated P125 wage hike amid these recent efforts to kill our fight for a legitimate and urgent demand,” he added.

For its part, the bigger Trade Union Congress of the Philippines has called for a P75 across-the-board increase.

Acknowledging that the existing daily minimum wage-setting system needs improvement, DoLE and NWPC are developing a two-tiered system that will set a floor wage and increases based on productivity, Mr. Lagunzad said. — AMGR