Baldoz orders wage boards to speed up consultations

MANILA, Philippines – Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz has ordered the wage board in Metro Manila to speed up the conduct of public consultations and grant a possible pay hike to workers in the metropolis before the end of May.

Baldoz said the wage board earlier declared that there is no supervening condition that could warrant a salary increase prior to the one-year prohibition period.

Although there is no supervening condition, Baldoz said the wage board can still conduct a review of the existing minimum wage in the National Capital Region (NCR).

“The (wage board) can already hold public consultations, as it should, and continue its periodic assessment of the minimum wage rates and its conduct of continuing studies of wages, productivity, and other socio-economic conditions in the region so that it will be ready to conduct a public hearing on the wage hike petition come May 27 this year,” she said.

The wage board granted a P22-pay hike to Metro Manila workers on May 26, 2011.

Under the law, workers should not be given salary increase for a period of 12 months unless there is a supervening condition such as an exorbitant hike in the prices of basic commodities.

Last week, the wage board said that the increases in the prices of crude oil and local petroleum products as well as other essential commodities could not be considered extraordinary.

The board noted that the inflation rate in the region remains within the target of three to five percent.

“For a wage board to declare a supervening condition, oil price hikes should have to be extraordinary, sustained, and persistent,” Baldoz pointed out.

The board is mandated to determine whether a supervening condition exists and such declaration will be confirmed by the National Wages and Productivity Commission (NPWC).

P86 pay hike in Calabarzon sought

The country’s largest labor group sought an P86 increase in the daily take home pay of workers in the Calabarzon region, comprising the provinces of Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon.

In a four-page petition filed before the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board (RTWPB), the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) said workers from Calabarzon are in dire need of wage relief.

“The continuing increases in the prices of basic commodities triggered by a series of price hikes of gas and diesel, LPG, automatic adjustments in rates of electricity and other utilities in the region require an increase in pay of workers,” TUCP president Democrito Mendoza said.

Mendoza said workers in Calabarzon need at least P86 increase in salaries.

If the wage board approves the petition, the minimum pay in the region would be raised from P337 to P423.

Mendoza said it has been more than a year since the wage board in Calabarzon approved the last wage hike. –Mayen Jaymalin (The Philippine Star)