Public hearings set on proposed P75 wage hike in Central Luzon

SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga, Philippines  – The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) has slated a series of public hearings in Central Luzon to tackle the labor sector’s petition for a P75 to P125 increase in the region’s minimum wage.

Central Luzon workers last got a wage adjustment over two years ago.

This, as Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz urged DOLE regional offices to adopt a project now being piloted in Central Luzon to ensure that malls, their tenants and sub-contractors are “labor-compliant.”

“Under this project, the mall, as well as its tenants and sub-contractors, would be monitored for compliance not only with the minimum wage, but also with other commitments such as maintaining a drug-free environment, protection of workers from sexual harassment, health and safety standards, and observance of single-parent privileges, among other lawful requirements,” DOLE-Central Luzon director Ernesto Bihis told The STAR.

Bihis said the project has been initiated in a Bulacan mall, which, if found compliant, would be declared a “Labor Standard Compliant Zone” and be awarded plaques and stickers for public display.

The DOLE, he said, will also come out with an official list of such zones.

Bihis said the Regional Tripartite Wage and Productivity Board has finished consultations with the management sector which, he noted, seemed “open” to granting a new wage adjustment.

He, however, said he was not privy to how much wage increase the management sector was willing to grant.

The proposed wage increase in Central Luzon was initiated by a petition filed by a member of the regional Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) seeking a P75 hike.

“That’s what the TUCP in the region wants, although we know the Kilusang Mayo Uno has stuck to its P125 wage increase demand,” Bihis said.

He said the public hearings, to be attended by both labor and management sectors from all Central Luzon provinces, are slated in Olongapo City and Bulacan on Monday and Tuesday next week.

The last wage order in Central Luzon was issued on June 16, 2008. The present wage rates in the region, except Aurora, are: P302 for non-agricultural workers of firms with assets of P30 million or more; P294.50 for workers of firms with lesser assets; P272 for agricultural plantation workers; and P256 for non-plantation workers.

In hospitals with 20 or more beds, the minimum wage is P293, and in hospitals with fewer beds, P278.

Retail outlets with 16 or more workers pay a minimum wage of P291, and those with fewer workers, P277. Cottage industry workers get a minimum wage of P256.

In Aurora, regarded as the most rural in the region, non-agriculture workers get P251; plantation workers, P236; and non-plantation workers, P216. Retail industry workers receive P173, and those in the cottage industry, P224.

Bihis said he expects some employers affected by the economic crunch would apply for exemptions if a new wage increase is approved.

Among the sectors to be adversely affected by a wage hike are garments, tourism, transport, and power generation. –Ding Cervantes (The Philippine Star)