Minimum Wage and Salary

Noting less restiveness of workers, employers are backing a proposal for a two-tiered wage scheme to do away with mandated yearly minimum wage increases. “We may be eroding our advantage of having lower wages through our yearly minimum wage setting such that this discourages investments,” Edgardo Lacson, president of the Employers Confederation of the Philippines…

MANILA, Philippines – The yearly setting of the minimum wage discourages businessmen from investing in the country, the Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP) said.

CEBU, Philippines – The Alliance of Progressive Workers is contemplating to file a case against the Department of Labor and Employment in Central Visayas because of its failure to ensure compliance of the minimum wage law.

The Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECoP) has voiced full support to the proposal by the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) for the implementation of a two-tier wage system. Certain issues may need to be addressed to bring about the needed reforms.

Hong Kong’s wage commission has announced it has agreed on a figure for the territory’s first minimum wage. But the agreed level – likely to raise the earnings of 11% of the working population – is unlikely to satisfy employers or workers.

I’ve occasionally heard it said that any law where all parties are dissatisfied in a good law. But I’m skeptical. Consider Hong Kong’s new minimum wage provision. BBC News reports that:

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.

MANILA, Philippines – There will be no wage increase for domestic helpers in Hong Kong, the Labor department announced yesterday. Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang, meanwhile, assured President Aquino that Filipinos will be shielded from any backlash arising from Monday’s hostage-taking incident where eight tourists from the Chinese territory were killed.

THE Regional Tripartite Wage and Productivity Boards have approved the salary increases of workers in two regions in Visayas and Mindanao.

THREE REMAINING regions with pending petitions have yet to benefit from higher minimum pay after the Regional Tripartite Wage and Productivity Board (RTWPB) in Zamboanga Peninsula (Region 9) has approved a P15 adjustment, the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) said on Friday.

MANILA, Philippines – There may be no long weekend, but workers nationwide can still enjoy additional pay.

BAGUIO CITY– At least 187 employers in the region were found by labor officials in violation of the minimum wage law, thereby depriving their employees of necessary compensation.

CEBU CITY, Philippines –The workers in Central Visayas could expect an additional P18 of their daily minimum wage at the end of August.

Gov’t to propose pay floor plus productivity-based adjustments PROPOSED CHANGES to the minimum wage-setting mechanism will be announced next week, with the National Wages and Productivity Commission (NWPC) set to endorse a two-tiered approach to pay adjustments.

The rounds for minimum-wage adjustments have begun, with Metro Manila, Davao, Western Visayas, North Cotabato, Caraga and the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao reportedly approaching agreements to set the minimum wage in their areas at more or less P25 higher than the current minimum. As this goes on, the National Wages and Productivity Commission (NWPC)…

In reality, the argument about the Philippine Airlines (PAL) pilots is about a lot more than that. After 25 pilots and first officers resigned, with the intention of taking up better-paid options with foreign airlines, PAL threatened them with administrative, civil and criminal charges for breaching their contracts. (Criminal charges? What kind of labor relations…

CEBU, Philippines – Could you believe that some farm workers in northern Cebu are paid only P50 in exchange for their eight hours of work per day?

THE DEPARTMENT of Labor and Employment (DoLE) will consult with the International Labor Organization (ILO) and other countries on the planned shift to a two-tiered wage system.

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) yesterday ruled out the possibility of enforcing a wage hike moratorium this year despite a clamor from the business community.

Wage boards have approved an increase in the minimum daily pay in four Mindanao regions, with workers in Davao provinces getting an extra P21 per day.

MANILA, Philippines—After recent consultations with its tripartite partners, the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) is proposing the adoption of a two-tiered system of wage determination to do away with the negative effects of the current system of minimum wage setting.

MANILA, Philippines – Malacañang tossed yesterday the matter of the wage hike moratorium to the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), saying it was a very “sensitive” issue.

CEBU CITY – The Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board (RTWPB) 7 is set to announce a wage increase for Central Visayas workers next week, with RTWPB Chairman Elias Cayanong saying that such increase will be “better” than previous hikes in wages.

THE REGIONAL wage boards of Caraga and the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) have ordered increases in daily minimum wage by P20 and P12, respectively, the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) said in a press release yesterday.

Malacañang yesterday assured no unilateral wage hikes in Metro Manila and elsewhere in the country. “There’s a process involved in bringing forth wage hikes,” said Communications Group official Secretary Herminio “Sonny” Coloma.

CEBU, Philippines – Department of Labor and Employment-7 regional director Elias Cayanong yesterday assured employees in the private sector that the increase of their daily salary will not be less than P15.

MANILA, Philippines – Organized labor yesterday rejected the proposal of the business community to defer any wage increase this year due to lingering effects of the global economic slowdown.

MANILA, Philippines—The regional tripartite wages and productivity boards in four more regions approved minimum wage rates for all employees in the private sector in these regions, the Department of Labor and Employment said Tuesday.

THE Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) has urged the Aquino administration to investigate thousands of firms found underpaying their workers and violating other general labor standards, saying they are potential tax dodgers too. “The Bureau of Internal Revenue should immediately audit the erring firms for possible non payment or underpayment of their tax…

MANILA, Philippines – Businessmen are calling for a deferment for any wage increase this year, citing the slowdown in global demand.