WVisayas workers seek P40 - P50 wage hike

BACOLOD, Philippines — The Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board here has started public hearings on Western Visayas organized workers’ petition for a P40-P50 raise in the daily minimum wage. At the hearing presided by Labor regional director Aida Estabillo here on Friday last week, labor and management representatives clashed anew. Management representatives argued specifically that they cannot afford to give such a raise since the impending lifting of tariff on imported sugar would hurt local sugar producers due to increased competition. Prohibitive The tariff rate on imported sugar is scheduled to drop to 5% in 2010 from the current 38% under the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Free Trade Agreement-Common Effective Preferential Tariff scheme. Moreover, Herman Santos, general manager of the Confederation of Sugar Producers Associations, said at the hearing that the low composite price of sugar at this time would make another wage increase in the industry prohibitive to affected companies. Negros, which produces 60% of the country’s sugar supply, is home to thousands of plantation workers who receive minimum wage. Labor representative Hernane Braza warned that workers will take to the streets if employers continue to oppose the proposed wage hike. Doesn’t count Mr. Braza and Wennie Sancho, another representative of the workers, earlier protested Wage Order No. 16 issued last May, granting a P15 emergency relief allowance (ERA) to workers from July 6 to October 15. "The ERA was not a wage increase; thus, the labor petition for additional pay should be heeded," Mr. Sancho said. Ms. Estabillo, who also chairs the wage board, said the board will meet on December 8 to decide on the petition. The latest petition, filed by the Philippine Agricultural, Commercial and Industrial Workers Union-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (PACIWU-TUCP), is seeking a P40 increase for commercial and industrial workers; P50 for commercial establishments with less than 10 employees and plantation workers; and P50 for non-plantation workers. Wage Order No. 16 pegged the minimum wage in Region 6 at a range of P208-250 per day, inclusive of the P15 allowance. Nonagriculture and retail/service establishment workers are receiving between P240-P250 daily while those in the agriculture sector get P208-P218. Without the P15 allowance, daily rates amount P225-235 for non-agriculture workers, as well as P193 and P203 for non-plantation and plantation agriculture workers, respectively. In its petition, PACIWU-TUCP argued that to ensure industrial peace and productivity, "lower wage earners in [Western Visayas] should be given more to bridge the gap or discrepancies between the highest level of wages and the lowest level of wages of workers." — Nanette L. Guadalquiver, BusinessWorld