Central Visayas workers get P20 wage hike

THE Regional Tripartite Wage and Productivity Board (RTWPB) in Central Visayas (Region 7) has granted a P20.00 wage hike in the daily minimum wage of workers in the private sector in the region, the National Wages and Productivity Commission (NWPC) announced on Friday.

“The RTWPB-Central Visayas, in response to the need to help workers cope with price increases, but without impairing the viability of business in the region, yesterday issued Wage Order No. VII-16 mandating a P20 increase in the minimum wage of minimum wage earners in the private sector in Region 7,” NWPC Executive Director Ciriaco Lagunzad 3rd said.

The new wage hike, Lagunzad said, will take effect upon the confirmation by the NWPC of the new wage order and 15 days after its publication in a newspaper of general circulation.

Based on Wage Order No. RO VII-16, minimum wage earners in the non-agricultural sector in the region’s Class A cities and municipalities will now receive P305.00, while agricultural workers will receive P287.00. Non-agricultural workers in Classes B, C, and D cities and municipalities will get P285.00, P275.00, and P260.00 in daily pay, respectively, while those workers in non-sugar farms will receive P270.00, P255.00, and P240.00 in daily minimum wage, respectively.

Sugar plantation workers and workers in sugar mills, regardless of the area they are working, will receive P255.00 and P275.00 daily minimum wage, respectively.

For private educational institutions, the new wage order provides that the share of covered workers and employees in the increase in tuition fees for SY 2011-2012 shall be considered as compliance with the new wage order and any shortfall shall be covered in SY 2012-2013.

“Private educational institutions which have not increased their tuition fees for SY 2011-2012 may defer compliance with the wage increase until 2012-2013,” the order stated.

“In the case of contractors for construction projects and for security, janitorial, and similar services, the prescribed wage increase shall be borne by the principals or clients of the service contractors,” it added.

Class A areas in the region are the cities of Carcar, Cebu, Danao, Lapulapu, Mandaue, Naga, and Talisay, and the municipalities of Compostela, Consolacion, Cordova, Liloan, Minglanilla, and San Fernando (or expanded Metro Cebu).

Class B areas are the cities of Toledo and Bogo, and the rest of the municipalities in the province of Cebu, except the municipalities in the Islands of Bantayan and Camotes.

Class C areas are the cities and municipalities in the provinces of Bohol and Negros Oriental, while Class D areas are the municipalities in the Province of Siquijor and municipalities in Bantayan and Camotes Islands.

The wage order for Central Visayas brings to seven the RTWPBs that have issued Wage Orders this year after the National Capital Region, Regions III, VI, VIII, X and the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. Three more RTWPBs are expected to issue their wage orders this September – the regional wage boards in Cordillera Autonomous Region, and Regions 9 and 11. –Rommel C. Lontayao, Manila Times