Senate panel OKs P125-wage increase for private workers

The Senate labor committee endorsed Monday the approval of a proposed P125 across-the-board legislated wage increase for workers in the private sector, dzBB radio reported. Senator Jose "Jinggoy" Estrada, committee chairman, said there is no need for bicameral conference committee debates because the only issue left to be threshed out is the date of effectivity of the salary hike. Estrada wants the increase to take effect beginning January 1 this year but the House of Representatives labor committee wants the measure to have a retroactive effect beginning October 2006. Should President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo sign the measure into law, then the present 13th Congress will succeed in what its predecessors have failed to accomplish in nearly a decade. The first legislative action for a P125 across-the-board wage increase kicked off during the 11th Congress in 1998 with the filing of House Bills 1390 and 8459. The House leadership was unable to calendar these bills thus leaving the proposed measures to stay stagnant until the end of the 11th Congress. A new campaign was revived in the 12th Congress with the filing of House Bills 2605 and 2623, both of which were approved at the committee level, but these were never taken up in plenary. Hours before Estrada's announcement, Malacañang said President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo would certify as urgent proposed legislation that would increase the salaries of about 1.5 million state employees. The Department of Budget of Management (DBM) is mapping out plans, said Secretary Rolando Andaya Jr, for a "better" and "more proportionate" wage hike for government workers from 2008 to 2010. Andaya submitted Monday a proposed bill to the House of Representatives seeking a 10-percent salary increase, which would be-across -the-board this year. Meanwhile, Estrada said that issue could be settled in the respective floors of the Senate and the House during the ratification period. Once ratified, the bill would be enrolled for President Arroyo's signature into law. Estrada said he will sponsor the wage measure in the Senate floor Monday afternoon as Congress resumes sessions after a month-long Christmas break. After his media briefing with reporters covering the Senate, Estrada addressed some 100 members of the Kilusang Mayo Uno, an umbrella organization of employees union nationwide, who gathered at the Senate gates to pressure senators into passing the House-approved money measure. He announced to the workers his committee’s decision eliciting applause and cheers of approval from the protesters. Change of heart Last week, Estrada said he was not too keen on passing the House-approved P125 legislated wage hike. He said he preferred a P100 across the board salary increase. The P125 wage hike bill approved in the House provided for a staggered salary increase totaling to P125 in three years. Party-list group Bayan Muna, which had been ardently pushing for a legislated wage hike in the past, expressed jubilation over the Senate labor committee's decision. Bayan Muna Rep. Teodoro "Teddy" Casiño said his group "welcomes with elation the Senate labor committee's approval of the P125-wage hike bill. It is high time that we give our workers their fair share of the economic growth that government is boasting about." "We expect that the bill be sent to Malacañang this week for action," said Casiño, a staunch critic of President Arroyo. Wage boards Congress devolved to the National Wages and Productivity Commission and the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Boards in July 1989 the determination of the minimum wage of workers in the private sector. The regional wage boards were authorized under Republic Act 6727 (or the Wage Rationalization Act) to determine minimum wage rates applicable to their regions, provinces and industries. The boards likewise fixed the statutory minimum wages applicable to different industrial sectors, namely: non-agricultural, agricultural plantation and non-plantation, cottage/handicraft, retail and service, depending upon the number of workers or capitalization or annual gross sales in some sectors. All petitions for salary increase in the private sector are filed with the regional wage boards. Since 1999, labor groups have been demanding a P125 nationwide, across-the-board increase in the minimum wage of private sector workers. Data from the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) show that in 1999, the daily minimum wage rates ranged from P140 in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao to P223.50 in the National Capital Region. Congress has not acted on the labor groups' petitions and has instead thrown to the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Boards the responsibility of addressing demands for salary increases. Harm than good? However, the House of Representatives, in a surprise move, granted December last year a P125 across-the-board daily wage hike of workers as embodied under House Bill (HB) 345. The House proposed pay adjustment to be implemented in the following manner: P45 on Oct. 1, 2006; P40 on Oct. 1, 2007; and another P40 on Oct. 1, 2008. The labor department has warned that a legislated wage hike could do more harm than good to the employers, the country's economy, and the workers themselves. Labor Secretary Arturo Brion warned that if a legislated wage hike pushes through, it could trigger massive layoffs of workers, and even the closure of businesses, by employers who might not be able to sustain the wage increase. He said hardest hit would be small and medium enterprises (SMEs), which he noted are still struggling amid soaring oil prices. - GMANews.TV