Wage board OKs P10 emergency allowance

THE Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board (RTWPB) in Western Visayas approved Wednesday a P10 Emergency Cost of Living Allowance (Ecola) for commercial and industrial workers in the region.

John Peter Millan, management representative to the RTWPB, said the P10 Ecola for Western Visayas private employees will take effect 15 days after publication of the wage order in local newspapers.

He said the Ecola will last for only three months, as it is intended only as a temporary relief for the private employees who are suffering from the increase in prices of basic goods and services brought about by the increase in prices of petroleum products.

According to Millan, Department of Labor and Employment (Dole) Regional Director Manuel Roldan, who chairs the regional wage board, had proposed an Ecola of P12.

However, after the deliberation of RTWPB representatives, the wage board decided on the P10 Ecola, based on the petitions filed by the different business groups all over Western Visayas.

Millan said he voted for the granting of the P10 Ecola, along with Roldan, Trade and Industry Regional Director Dominic Abad and Luis Estrella, the other representative of the management sector in the wage board.

Labor representatives Winnie Sancho and Hernani Braza abstained.

The P10 Ecola is much below the P99 per day daily wage hike petition filed by the labor groups in the region headed by the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP).

Sancho condemned the decision of the RTWPB, saying that government and management representatives failed to consider the plight of the private workers in the region.

“It’s actually an act of oppression. It only showed how the government and the management sectors connived to the advantage of the businessmen. They failed to consider giving weight to the purchasing power of the employees,” Sancho said.

Sancho disclosed that the labor sector representatives did not sign the RTWPB order as a sign of protest.

“We do not want to be part of a decision that would create more oppression to the workers,” he said.

“It’s also a manifestation that we do not recognize the wage order,” Sancho further stated. –Sun Star