Palace says regional wage boards to decide on pay hike

MANILA, Philippines - Malacañang clarified yesterday that regional wage boards would decide on petitions for salary increases as officials noted that there is a one-year moratorium on granting minimum wage hikes.

The country’s largest labor group, the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP), announced plans to file a formal petition for wage hikes for minimum wage earners in Metro Manila, Cavite-Laguna-Batangas-Rizal-Quezon (Calabarzon) and Central Luzon, including Aurora, Bataan, Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga, Tarlac and Zambales.

TUCP president Democrito Mendoza said the workers would seek a wage hike ranging from P75 to P100 in the daily basic pay of minimum wage earners in the three regions.

Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said the Palace could not say “definitively” if it would be a burden for the employers to give the new wage hike to workers since the last increase was in June of last year.

“That is why we have the regional wage boards. We leave it to them, there is not one entity that mandates a wage increase in all areas because there are different climates, different needs, different capacities,” Valte said over radio dzRB.

Valte said the regional wage boards would also consider the moratorium on wage hikes.

Calls for wage hike always come after increases in prices of fuel and fuel products, basic commodities and transport fares.

According to the TUCP, “there is an urgent need for the workers’ wages and salaries to be increased now, with Filipino workers and families already feeling the pinching impact of rising prices of basic commodities and basic services such as the cost of electricity and transportation.”

Mendoza said the TUCP was finalizing the filing of the formal petition before the proper regional tripartite wages and productivity boards.

“The TUCP is trying to finalize some data to determine the exact uniform amount. We know this is urgent. And once it is done, we are filing the petition with the wage board,” he said.

Last year, TUCP asked for a P75 increase in the daily pay of minimum wage earners in Metro Manila, but the board granted only P22 pay hike.

The increase brought to P426 the current minimum wage in the National Capital Region.

TUCP also sought a P100 increase in pay for workers in Central Luzon, but the wage board granted only P13.

Labor officials said that both the needs of the workers and the employers’ capability to provide salary increase have to be taken into consideration in the granting of pay hike.

The National Wages and Productivity Commission has also adopted a two-tiered wage scheme that provides for voluntarily granting of additional pay to good performing workers aside from the mandatory salary increases.