No salary hike for minimum wage earners

Saying that the effects of the global financial crisis is still being felt by many businesses, a wage official on Wednesday said minimum wage workers will not get a hike in their salaries yet. Ciriaco Lagunzad, chief of the National Wages and Productivity Commission (NWPC), said a wage increase may do more harm than good at this time when many are still in the process of recovering from the crisis.

“As a policy, DOLE [the Department of Labor and Employment] is not recommending an increase in the general wages at this time in the country because doing so might result in layoffs and the possible closure of companies,” Lagunzad told reporters during the National Policy Forum on Wages and Productivity in Manila.

He said the economy is still fragile, but added the commission may propose a wage increase if the economy will improve next year.

Lagunzad noted that the Alliance for Progressive Labor has already asked the wages and productivity commission to recommend an across-the-board increase of P126.50 to the P267 minimum wage in Central Visayas.

The official, however, said the regional wage board has already stated that there will be no wage hike, at least until the end of the year, following the petition of the Alliance for Progressive Labor for a salary increase in Region VII (Central Visayas). The group is asking for a P126.50 raise.

The group cited “erosion of income of workers” as the reason for its petition.

But Lagunzad said that the chairman of the wage board’s Region VII office has already ruled that there would be no wage increase in the region for the rest of the year.

Currently, Region VII workers receive a minimum payment of P267.

The forum held at Bayview Plaza Hotel in Manila sought to assess the current policies on minimum wage fixing and productivity improvement in the country.

The labor official said that the department is currently focusing on preserving employment, continuing promotion and enhancing the viability of companies.

Minimum wage rate for non-agricultural employees in Metro Manila remains at P382, which took effect on June 14, 2008.

But Lagunzad said that the one-year moratorium on wage adjustments on the approved rates has lapsed already.

This means that labor wage groups can file petitions for wage adjustments.

“Almost all regions have their own current wages . . . lapsed . . . legally, there’s no bar. Nothing will prevent workers to file petition for wage increase,” Lagunzad said.

The law specifically states that no labor group’s petition for wage adjustment will be welcomed by the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Boards within a year after the board’s last wage order. –Rommel C. Lontayao andBernice Camille V. Bauzon, Reporters, Manila Times