Delays hinder Metro workers’ wage hike

Workers in Metro Manila may have to wait longer to get their much-deserved salary hike.

Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) yesterday reported that Metro Manila workers are unlikely to get P20 increase in daily take home pay in the first week of June.

“Workers in Metro Manila are supposed to get the much awaited wage adjustment first week of June but that is highly impossible due to delay in the publication of the new wage order,” TUCP spokesman Alex Aguilar said.

Aguilar noted that the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board (RTWPB) in the National Capital Region (NCR) approved a new wage order last May 16 but it has yet to be published. He noted that a newly approved wage order would take effect only 15 days after publication.

Labor Secretary Marianito Roque earlier assured workers in Metro Manila that they would get the additional P20 in their daily pay in the first week of June with the approval of the new wage order.

Avito Sto. Tomas, Department of Labor and Employment-NCR deputy director, said the wage order is still awaiting the confirmation of the National Wages and Productivity Commission (NWPC) before publication.

NWPC sources, however, claimed that the commission cannot issue the confirmation because the employers and the workers could not agree on certain provisions of the wage order, such as “the provision exempting indigenous exporters from the salary hike. The workers are strongly against the exemption.”

According to the NWPC source, despite the disagreement between the workers and employers, the wage board still opted to approve the new wage order so they could comply with President Arroyo’s directive.

“The board said since the workers and employers already agreed on the amount and form they will just approve the wage order and undertake some amendments later,” the NWPC source reported.

Sto. Tomas also admitted that there have been delays in the publication because “there are possible changes in the wage order and the government sector of the wage board is set to meet and discuss the issue.”

Sto. Tomas added that the wage board is likely to remove the provision exempting companies facing potential losses and those with less than P3 million capital in granting salary increases.

But Sto. Tomas said the wage board is also considering the possibility of expanding the exemption to all exporters and not only to indigenous exporters provided under the newly approved wage order. – Mayen Jaymalin