Pay minimum wage or else...

Thousands of employers in Metro Manila face possible jail terms and other sanctions for non-payment of minimum wage and other benefits to workers, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) said yesterday.

Acting Labor Secretary Manuel Imson warned employers to pay workers the proper wages and other benefits or face sanctions.

Imson issued the warning in response to the admission of the Employers Confederation (ECOP) that a significant number of companies will not be able to give workers the mandated P30 emergency cost of living allowance (ECOLA) increase.

"There are sanctions and penalties for those who will be found violating the new wage order," Imson said, stressed that DOLE is currently monitoring compliance to the minimum wage law.

Under the law, employers found violating the prescribed minimum wage rate face imprisonment of not less than two years but not more than four years.

Violators of wage order issued by the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board (RTWPB) will be required to pay a minimum fine of P25,000 to as high as P100,000.

Earlier, ECOP president Donald Dee claimed that as much as half of the number of Metro Manila employers are not capable of giving the P30 ECOLA to workers due to financial problems.

He cited DOLE data indicating 62.1 percent of the estimated 200,000 commercial firms in Metro Manila are not paying their workers the appropriate legal wages.

Labor officials, however, noted that companies are normally able to comply with wage order in the early months of implementation.