Manila wage board to come out with decision by Monday

Despite opposition from the business sector, the Metro Manila regional wage board might come up with an order by Monday on the petition filed by labor groups for a P75 across-the-board wage increase.

Regional Tripartite Wage and Productivity Boards (RTWPB) National Capital Region director Ricardo Martinez said they are coming out with the decision by June 26, which will take effect before July 15 or immediately after they complete the 15-day publication period of the new wage order.

Martinez did not, however, give an idea as to how much the final increase would be, saying this would be determined once they have completed deliberating on the positions given by representatives from the labor and management sectors sitting on the panel, and according to the socio-economic indicators that will be given by National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).

He said employers have softened their position against any wage increase, claiming that business owners requested the wage boards "to ensure that the increase would be reasonable."

He said that they would resolve whether the increase would be in the form of a cost of living allowance (COLA) or an increase in the basic daily wage.

However, Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP) acting president Feliciano Torres said in a letter to Martinez that raising the minimum wage by P75 may create adverse effects.

According to the ECOP, "high wages discourage the use of labor-intensive operations and enterprises will find it more efficient and productive in the long term to resort to automation, capital-intensive technology and the deployment of a small but highly skilled workforce."

Maintaining high wages would "aggravate the shrinking of the formal (labor) sector and the bloating of the informal (labor) sector," the ECOP letter said.

The ECOP also warned that "the competitiveness of export would be adversely affected. The $50-billion target of merchandise exports this year may not be attained."

High wages will "not only discourage new foreign direct investment but even induce existing foreign investors to transfer to other countries where labor costs are much lower," the ECOP said.

The group also maintained its position that "collective bargaining should remain the preferred mode of fixing wages" and that any wage increase should be productivity-based.

Earlier this year, the National Capital Region (NCR) wage boards gave salary hike orders of not less than P20 but not exceeding P30. The minimum wage rate in NCR is now P325 a day. If the P75 wage hike is granted completely, the minimum wage in the NCR would stand at P400.

Alex Aguilar, spokesman for the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) said the order was expected as they have already completed public consultations.