Wage boards of 6 regions approve pay hikes

Six of the Philippines’ 17 administrative regions—Cagayan Valley, Bicol, SOCCKSARGEN, Davao, Western Visayas, Southern Tagalog—have issued new wage hike orders, the National Wages and Productivity Commission said Friday.

In an interviews with GMA News’ Dano Tingcungco, National Wages and Productivity Commission executive director Ciriaco Lagunzad III said the wage board are being careful to not adversely affect the viability of businesses and avoid creating unemployment.

Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz noted that the wage board in the Cagayan Valley region issued a wage order for agricultural plantation and non-plantation workers ‘motu proprio’, or even without petition.

“Upon the effectivitiy of the order, minimum wage earners in Isabela, Cagayan, Nueva Vizcaya, Quirino and Batanes will get an increase of P10.00 in their daily basic pay, while the P15.00 COLA will be integrated into their basic pay,” the statement said.

Earlier, four other wage boards approved pay hikes:

Region V (Bicol): Wage Order No. 15 granting a P3 to P23 basic wage increase, bringing the new minimum wage rates in the Bicol region to a range of P228 to P252 effective 7 April 2012.
Region XII: Wage Order No. 17 on 26 March, granting a P10 to P14 COLA. The increases shall be given in two tranches, with the first tranche taking effect on 18 April, and the second tranche becoming effective on 1 December 2012.
Region VI: Wage Order No. 20 on 26 March granting a basic wage increase of P12, thus bringing the new minimum wage to a range of P235 to P277. These adjustments will become effective 15 days after publication of the wage order in a newspaper of general circulation.
Region IV-A: On 28 March, RTWPB IV-A decided to grant a P2 to P90 adjustment to workers in the CALABARZON region receiving minimum wages below P255 and a productivity allowance of P12.50 for workers receiving minimum wages above P255 up to P337. The adjustment will be done in tranches over a five-year period.

Secretary Baldoz said the wage board for Metro Manila is still conducting a series of consultations and assessing the economic conditions.

The Labor chief said the wage order will be issued after May 26, the anniversary date of its last wage order. A second round of public consultations was held Friday at the Universidad de Manila in Escolta, Manila.

“The rest of the Boards are closely monitoring the socio-economic conditions in their respective regions as current wage orders approach their anniversary dates this year,” Baldoz said. — with Rouchelle Dinglasan/ELR, GMA News