Metro pay hike just P27/day

Workers in Metro Manila may not get more than a P27 increase in their daily minimum pay.

Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) records showed that for the past 10 years, increases have not gone beyond P27, or less than half of the workers’ demands.

Labor Assistant Secretary Reydeluz Conferido said that data from 1990 to 2000 indicated that past wage hikes were always less than P27 or not more than 19 percent of the prevailing minimum wage.

The current minimum wage in the National Capital Region (NCR) is P250, while workers outside the region receive anywhere from P110 to P217.

The rate in Metro Manila was pegged at P250 after the wage board in the region granted last November a P26.50 adjustment from the previous P223.50 daily pay rate.

Workers actually demanded a P75.50 adjustment in wages for Metro Manila but the NCR wage board granted only P26, not even half of their request.

Last week the Labor Solidarity Movement (LSM), the country’s biggest labor federation, filed another petition seeking a P77 across- the-board increase in salaries of workers in Metro Manila.

Another petition for a P50 increase was filed before the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Boards (RTWPBs) by workers from Western Visayas.

Militant labor groups, however, are pressing for a legislated P125 across-the-board increase in the daily take home pay of workers nationwide.

Labor Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas earlier said the NCR wage board was already deliberating on the wage petition and would likely come out with a decision by Aug. 15.

But if the wage board will base its decision on previous increases, chances are workers will not be getting their wish.

In a radio interview over the weekend, Sto. Tomas said the wage board was seriously considering the effects of such salary increase on the cost of business in the country.

She said the board was meeting daily to come up with a reasonable figure acceptable to both labor and management, at the same time noting that the past mandated hike of P26 had a less than satisfactory compliance.