No pay hike yet for 8,000 Metro workers

About 8,000 workers in Metro Manila are not getting any increase in their daily take-home pay until next year.

Aida Andres, National Capital Region Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board secretary, said 136 companies in Metro Manila are exempted from giving the P20 increase in the daily pay of their workers.

“The board has granted a total of 136 exemptions, which shall cover about 8,000 workers,” she said.

Andres said the board approved the application for exemption filed by owners of the 136 commercial establishments after a thorough deliberation.

“Distressed establishments accounted for a majority or 89 percent of the approved exemptions while small firms or those with less than P3 million capital got 18 percent share,” she said. 

Firms suffering from financial difficulty are considered distressed and therefore not capable of granting increase in the daily take-home pay of their workers, Andres said.

The new wage order granting P20 increase in the daily take-home pay of minimum wage earners in the region took effect last June 14.

The daily minimum pay in Metro Manila is now pegged at P382.      – Mayen Jaymalin