Business warns against frequent wage increases

BUSINESS leaders of Cebu gathered yesterday at the Norkis Social Center to discuss what they described as ill effects of frequent increase in the minimum wage.

The group also discussed pending bills in the Senate and House of Representatives that they consider potentially harmful to the economy.

The forum was organized by businessmen Jose Ng and Eric Ng Mendoza of the Mandaue Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) and Consul Samuel Chioson, president of the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Dr. Norberto Quisumbing Jr., chairman of the Norkis Group of Companies, said he provide the venue and food so that business leaders can take up issues on government intervention on how workers are paid, disregarding the merit system.

Quisumbing said he wants representatives of the business sector to speak, especially that private employers are the ones providing jobs to workers.

Guest speaker Employers Confederation of the Philippines president Edgardo Lacson said the crucial issue facing businesses today is the petition by the labor sector for a P125 legislated wage increase.

Lacson said that if the petition is enacted, about 700,000 workers will lose their jobs and the business sector will lose about P300 billion per year in additional or incremental expenses.

He said the massive loss of jobs will cause a migration from the formal sector to the informal sector.

“With frequent government intervention in labor, there are now three certain things that happen in the business sector. These are debts, taxes and salary increase,” Lacson said.

The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines filed a petition seeking P75 across-the-board wage increase on the following grounds: erosion of the peso’s purchasing power and increased capacity by the business sector to pay wage increases.

Lacson said the problem with some politicians is that they want to protect the labor sector because they are after the votes of workers. He said, however, that they should also understand that without the efforts of the business community, the country’s economy will go sluggish.

He said that it is only in the Philippines that a businessman will go to jail if he refuses to make permanent the appointment of a worker after six months. –Elias O. Baquero, Sun Star