Employers support selective wage hike

MANILA, Philippines – Employers are open to a wage hike but only for workers in sectors least affected by the economic slowdown.

“It should be sectoral, not across-the-board,” Edgardo Lacson, president of the Employers Confederation of the Philippines, told reporters on the sidelines of the 31st National Conference of Employers at the Manila Hotel.

Lacson said workers in the services and construction sectors may be given higher salaries because the two industries appear to be doing well despite the economic crisis.

“If we use recent economic performance as sole indicator, the construction and services sectors will be industries that are actively hiring additional workers. Generating new jobs is higher than complying with a mandated wage increase,” Lacson said.

“But it is safe to claim that a good number of companies in these sectors are covered by collective bargaining agreements which are already operative and issuance of a wage hike order may be unnecessary,” he said.

Lacson said that of the 36-million Filipinos in the labor force, only 16 percent are in the formal sector or are entitled to regular wages.

“So the remaining 84 percent are not affected – the taxi drivers, tricycle drivers. The disparity between the two sectors is aggravated because of the wage increase,” Lacson stressed.

The group on Monday rejected the petition filed by the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines for a P75-across-the-board salary increase.

“It is the universal sentiment of all employers during the recent tripartite consultation not to grant any wage hike this year because we are not yet ready,” Lacson said. “The economy is still weak.”

Lacson said employers prefer non-wage benefits for workers.

“There are still non-wage benefits that we are looking at like vacation leave, food subsidy, transport subsidy,” he said.

Lacson said an across-the-board wage hike “is unproductive because there are sectors that are recovering and there are sectors that are suffering.”

“We have to protect the business before protecting the salary,” he said. –Helen Flores (The Philippine Star)