NCR wage board talks next month

PUBLIC consultations with various stakeholders will be held next month to assess if there is a need to adjust the daily minimum pay in Metro Manila, officials of the regional wage board yesterday said.

“We [Regional Tripartite Wage and Productivity Board of the National Capital Region] have set the schedules of public consultations on July 5 and 10,” German N. Pascua, Jr., Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) representative to the regional wage board, said in a phone interview.

He said representatives from the government, the labor sector, and employers will be invited to discuss whether supervening conditions exist as to warrant any wage hike in Metro Manila.

Asked if the wage hike petition filed by the group of former Senator Ernesto “Boy” F. Herrera was approved, Mr. Pascua said: “It [petition] will form part of our discussion during the public consultations.’

On June 7, Mr. Herrera, who has figured in a leadership dispute in the TUCP, filed a petition asking the Metro Manila wage board to raise daily minimum wages by P83 per day, citing “continuing increases in the prices of petroleum products, transport fares, and in basic goods and services.”

The proposed amount was lower than the P85 per day in a petition filed early April by the group of Raymond Democrito T. Mendoza. This petition was denied by the wage board as it was submitted within the one-year ban without supervening conditions to justify its filing.

A Department of Labor and Employment decision late last month recognized Mr. Mendoza as head of TUCP, but the wage board will still consider the petition of Mr. Herrera’s group.

“As long as there is a wage petition from any labor group, the wage board has to entertain the petition. The issue of leadership of the TUCP is sub judice, pending before the DoLE. It is not for us to decide on that,” said Vicente R. Leogardo, Jr., Employers’ Confederation of the Philippines representative to the Metro Manila wage board. — Daryll Edisonn D. Saclag, Businessworld