2 labor groups nominate own leaders to RTWPB

CEBU, Philippines - The Alliance of Progressive Labor and the Public Interest and Litigation Office will be submitting their nominees for the vacated seat for labor representative at the Regional Tripartite Wage and Productivity Board.

APL president Jose Tomongha and PILO project director Metudio Bellarmino Jr. are the groups’ nominees. The nomination forms will be submitted to the Department of Labor and Employment.

Tumongha said the term of labor representative Mariano Ventura, chairman of Trade Union of the Philippines and Allied Services, ended last June 30. Ventura is currently holding the position on a hold-over capacity.

On the other hand, the Associated Labor Union-Trade Congress of the Philippines is hoping that the National Tripartite Wage and Productivity Board will grant its request for a labor representative to the RTWPB-VII.

ALU-TUCP spokesperson Joy Lim said they already sent the request last May after their lawyer, Jose Boquecosa, one of the labor representatives to RTWPB, resigned last March.

Boquecosa likewise resigned from ALU-TUCP as chief legal counsel and now works abroad. He is replaced by former National Conciliation and Mediation Board Judge Ernesto Carreon as legal chief of ALU-TUCP.

Carreon is the one requested by ALU-TUCP to sit as labor representative as a replacement of Buquecosa.

The Board is composed is two labor representatives, two management representatives, and three regional directors from the Department of Trade and Industry, the National Economic Development Authority and the Department of Labor and Employment.

Except for the DOLE regional director who acts as tiebreaker, the six board members are the ones who will participate in voting for the amount that the board will grant in wage petitions.

RTWPB recently conducted consultation on the petitions filed by ALU-TUCP and the Cebu Labor Coalition in Cebu last Thursday. The board will hold another consultation in Bohol within the week.

TUCP filed a P100 across-the-board wage hike for workers in Region VII while CELAC is asking of P128.60 increase in the daily wage of workers in the region.

ALU-TUCP is optimistic that the RTWPB will grant an increase in wages after salaries in Metro Manila were recently increased to P22 per day.

Lim said that they are continuously pushing for the board to immediately act on their petition, as the workers badly needed an increase in their pay.    (FREEMANNEWS)