Arroyo says Metro workers assured of P20 wage increase

(Updated 12:32 p.m.) MANILA, Philippines - President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on Thursday said Metro Manila workers may now expect an increase in their wages by P20, but said terms of the wage adjustment have yet to be finalized. During the 29th National Conference of Employers, President Arroyo said the National Capital Region (NCR) wage board has agreed on a P20 wage adjustment for minimum wage earners. The President, however, said the wage board is still working out the terms of the wage hike, saying it may be given either in the form of a P20 wage increase or a P15 wage hike plus an additional P5 cost of living allowance (COLA). On Wednesday, the NCR wage board failed to come up with a new wage order as labor and employer representatives failed to agree on the forms and coverage of the exemption. An earlier GMANews.TV report quoted an insider from the National Wages and Productivity Commission (NWPC) as saying that representatives of the labor sector walked out from Wednesday's deliberations due to the said disagreement. "It’s not the amount but the coverage of the exemptions that they failed to reach a common understanding," the NPWC source said. During the conference, President Arroyo also hailed the Lower House for passing a bill exempting minimum wage earners from income tax. Mrs Arroyo also reminded large companies of an executive order urging them to extend rice benefits to their employees. Meanwhile, the daily salary of minimum wage earners in the provinces of Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, and Quezon will soon be P20 higher after the regional wage board on Thursday approved a salary hike. Radio dzBB said the Calabarzon wage board agreed to increase by P20 the P300 daily minimum wage of non-agricultural workers in the said provinces to provide relief to their families who are feeling the brunt of the rising prices of commodities. The Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE), however, clarified that workers from the non-agricultural sector are the ones only covered by the said increase. The increase will be implemented two weeks or exactly 15 days after the wage order has been published in major newspapers, the report said. This came on the heels of the Region 10 wage board's decision on Wednesday to grant a P12 additional COLA to all minimum wage earners in the private sector in Northern Mindanao. The Region 10 wage board also granted integration of the existing COLA of P16 under Wage Order No 12 to the basic wage effective immediately upon issuance of the new wage order. This brings the level of basic wage in Northern Mindanao to a total of P234.00 per day.- GMANews.TV