MANILA -- Close to 600,000 minimum wage earners in Metro Manila are set to receive an additional P15 in their daily pay beginning mid-April which militant groups said is not even enough to cover for the recent increase in train fares.
Metro Manila's minimum wage is currently at P466 for those working outside the agriculture sector.
This will jump to P481 in the next few weeks after the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board-National Capital Region (RTWPB-NCR) issued Wage Order 19 on Wednesday. Minimum pay for agricultural workers will grow to P444.
“The minimum wage hike is expected to be affirmed and published this week and take effect 15 days after its publication,” said Department of Labor and Employment (Dole) spokesperson Nicon Fameronag.
The P15 pay hike is a far cry from the P146.80 across-the-board wage increase sought by the Association of Minimum Wage Earners and Advocates last November 2014 and the P136 across-the-board pay adjustment asked by the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) last March 6.
The last wage order was issued on September 6, 2013.
“In coming up with the figure, we need to consider the hard balancing job of factoring the concerns of employers, workers, and the government,” said Dole-NCR Director Alex Avila.
He added that they considered, among others, the erosion of minimum wage, inflation rate, impact of wage adjustment on prices of goods and services, consumer price index, employers’ ability to pay, and the current economic condition in the region.
“Like in the past years, employers will be able to bear the cost of the increase without hampering their viability for growth and expansion,” said Fameronag.
The NCR wage board said establishments, whose assets are not more than P3 million, are no longer allowed to apply for exemption from following the minimum wage rate.
Still allowed to apply for exemption are distressed establishments, retail/service establishments regularly employing not more than 10 workers, and establishments adversely affected by natural calamities.
Fameronag said 587,000 minimum wage earners are set to directly benefit from the wage order out of the 4.6 million workers in Metro Manila.
He said the labor department has already advised employers to also look into the issue of wage distortion with the issuance of the latest wage order.
Wage distortion arises when, after implementation of a prescribed minimum wage increase, existing salary differentials in the salary structure of an establishment are eliminated or severely contracted.
“It is a natural consequence during minimum wage increases to result to wage distortion. That’s why we have told employers that they may have to revisit their pay structure so that there will be no wage distortion,” Fameronag said.
Fameronag, however, clarified that the salary adjustment for non-minimum wage earners is not mandatory.
The TUCP assailed the decision of the NCR wage board, saying the amount is unacceptable.
“This amount is revolting. Rather than closing the gap between rich and poor, government officials in the Board has further widened the gaping inequality among Filipinos—between a few elite and a famished majority who live to survive by the day,” said TUCP spokesperson Alan Tanjusay in a statement.
The TUCP said the amount is offensive for workers considering the recent fare hikes implemented by the Metro Rail Transit (fare increase ranges from P8 to P16), Light Rail Transit 1 (from P5 to P10), LRT 2 (from P6 to P12) and the forthcoming Philippine National Railways fare hike (from P5 to P15).
Electricity and water rates in the capital region also picked up last month.
“Region-based wage hikes don’t address the attacks carried out against the minimum wage in the country for decades. We are fighting for the implementation of a national minimum wage in the amount of P16,000 monthly to give workers some immediate relief and to turn back the attacks against the minimum wage throughout the country,” said Kilusang Mayo Uno chairperson Elmer Labog.
According to independent think-tank Ibon Foundation, the so-called family living wage in the country, or the amount needed daily by an average Filipino family to live decently, stood at P1,086 last August 2014. (HDT/Sunnex) SunStar
No comments:
Post a Comment