Wage adjustment before Labor Day unlikely–govt

Workers may as well pin their hope on the new administration  for a new wave of salary increases as it is unclear whether the Arroyo government can give in to their demand before Labor Day.

Executive Director Ciraco Lagunzad of the National Wage Productivity Council (NWPC) said the agency is still studying how much the government can give the labor force, but  he cannot give a time frame.

“What we can assure the public is that we at NWPC are trying our best to finish the talks, but when we can arrive [at a resolution] on how big or small the recommendation, only time can tell,” Lagunzad told mediamen in a weekly forum, Balitaan sa Hotel Rembrandt.

He said that salary increases in Mindanao appear to be out of the question because the investors are complaining about the sharp decline of productivity owing to power shortage and outages.

“If the power problem in Mindanao continues, local and foreign investors would be forced to shut down their businesses because of heavy losses,” Lagunzad said.

But he argued that the technocrats, should be doing their homework on how best they can reconcile and balance the demands of the labor force and the needs of the employers in order to come up with a recommendation that will be acceptable to both parties.

Lagunzad appealed to workers, saying it would be better not to ask for  salary adjustments at this time than lose their jobs because employers just may decide to close shops.

On the brighter side, Director Cris Sy of the Bureau of Local Employment said the unemployment rate has gone down to 7.2 percent from 7.7 percent.

Moreover, Sy said the increase of labor force compared to statistics in the previous showed that the “worst is over.”

However, she said that the statistics reflected only the non-agriculture sector. The sector most affected by the El Niño phenomenon is  agriculture, the one that feeds the country.

Sy said people from the 55 million working force all over the country, with ages ranging 15 years and up ,  7.1 million are underemployed.

Sy, like Lagunzad, cannot categorically say when the government can come up with a recommendation on salary increases. –SAMMY MARTIN Reporter, Manila Times