DOLE takes note of wage complaint

Labor Secretary Rosalinda Dimapilis-Baldoz has taken note of the demand of the Negros Panay Alliance of Labor for a review of Wage Order No. 19, that grants a P12 a day Emergency Cost of Living Allowance for three months only to minimum wage earners in Western Visayas, NPAL convenors Wennie Sancho and Randy Ronquillo said yesterday.

Baldoz has asked the National Wages and Productivity Commission to look into the demand of the NPAL, Sancho said.

He also said they are asking the NWPC to nullify the order issued by the WV Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board for gross irregularities in its implementation.

Ronquillo, head of the Trade Union of Filipino Workers in Negros, and Zoilo de la Cruz, president of National Congress of Unions in the Sugar Industry of the Philippines-Trade Union Congress, had filed petitions before the RTWPB for P97 and P99 daily wage increases, respectively.

In their petition to be filed before the NWPC seeking the nullification of Wage Order No. 19 for Western Visayas, Ronquillo said they will point out that the measly P12 granted by the RTWPB does not reflect economic needs of workers.

The NLAC, in a manifesto issued earlier, said they condemn in the strongest possible terms the demeaning and disgraceful amount granted them.*CPG, The Visayan Daily Star