Region 10 firms bare mixed views on new wage rate

CAGAYAN DE ORO — The business sector expressed mixed sentiment on a new wage order issued last week for Northern Mindanao.

“We are for an increase but it should not have been that high,” said Antonio D. Uy, president of the Cagayan de Oro Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Oro Chamber).

Jerome R. Soldevilla, president of the Cagayan de Oro Chamber of Industries, however, described the adjustment as “fair.”

Wage Order No. RX-16, approved on July 4 by the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board, prescribed an additional P17 cost of living allowance (CoLA) raising the region’s minimum wage to P286 from the P269 set on Aug. 22, 2010.

The wage board fixed the latest order in recognition of a supervening condition, confirmed to be existent in the region in previous months.

Regional wage board secretary Estrella Uy-Pahalla said Northern Mindanao has breached its inflation target of 3.5% since February.

In April, the inflation rate shot to 5.9%. “There has really been an increase in the prices of commodities,” she said.

But citing the unpredictable rollback of fuel prices, Oro Chamber’s Mr. Uy believed the current oil price is only “temporary in nature.”
The real solution, he said, is for the government to check the prices of basic commodities while lowering those for basic services.

Mr. Uy said Oro Chamber has surveyed member-companies and found several firms already doing measures to improve their workers’ purchasing power. Some companies have taken to distributing groceries like rice, while others have compensated employees with an additional P10 and more, said Mr. Uy.

But Mr. Soldevilla of the Cagayan de Oro Chamber of Industries expressed support to the new wage rate.

“While this would mean higher production cost on our part, we find it reasonable. The industry sector recognizes the plight of our workers as they grapple with the escalating cost of living,” he said.

The Associated Labor Unions-Trade Union and Congress of the Philippines, however, had been pressing for a P79 across-the-board wage increase in the region for some time now, arguing that even that amount would not be enough to enable workers “to meet the basic needs of their families.” — AGGDC with LGD, BUsinessworld