No pay hike on Labor Day

MANILA, Philippines - Minimum wage earners are unlikely to receive a salary increase on Labor Day.

Malacañang is leaving the study of the petition to increase the minimum wage in Metro Manila by P85 to the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board-National Capital Region (RTWPB-NCR), and the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) said the wage boards in the region are not expected to grant additional pay on or before May 1.

Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda told reporters yesterday that the RTWPB-NCR would have to study the petition of the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) for wage hike to determine if the amount being asked is reasonable.

Lacierda also said that based on existing rules, the RTWPB-NCR could look into the petition after May 17, a year after its last wage order. 

Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz confirmed this, saying the law prohibits the wage board from issuing successive wage orders in one year unless there is a “supervening condition” or abrupt and sustained high increases in the prices of oil, food and other essential commodities.

“We don’t see any supervening condition at this time so it would be very unlikely for the wage board to convene immediately,” Baldoz said.

“When you say sustained increase that is three months of continuous increase in prices. However, for the past year, the inflation rate is stable and that is good news,” Labor Undersecretary Ciriaco Lagunzad III added.

Lagunzad explained that although there is a one-year prohibition the wage boards are continuously reviewing the economic conditions in their respective regions to determine whether there is a need for pay hike.

“The wage boards undertake review and even without any petition they can act motu propio and grant wage increases,” he said.

The TUCP yesterday filed a formal petition seeking an P85 increase in the daily minimum wage in Metro Manila, saying that workers in the metropolis are in dire need of salary increase as their purchasing power has significantly eroded because of the continuing increase in prices of basic commodities.