Reg’l wage board to tackle pay hike petition today

THE Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board in Central Visayas (RTWPB-7) will discuss today the request for a P155.80 accross-the-board wage adjustment for minimum wage earners in the region.

Department of Labor and Employment in Central Visayas (DOLE-7) Regional Director Cyril Ticao said they will deliberate with the board to come up with the pay increase.

“Titingnan pa ng board kung anong action ang aming gagawin,” Ticao, who is also the head of the wage board, said in a phone interview.

He said they will take into consideration the increase in prices of gasoline and basic commodities in tackling the issue.

Labor groups in Cebu, such as the Cebu Labor Coalition (Celac), filed a wage increase petition last Feb. 28, saying minimum wage earners are greatly affected by the implementation of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (Train) Law by President Rodrigo Duterte.

Celac Spokesperson Metudio Belarmino Jr. said that there really is a need to hike the take home pay of minimum wage earners because of the massive drop in the purchasing power of the peso due to the Train Law, the drop in consumer price index and high inflation rate of 3.2 as of Jan. 2018. These factors reduced the purchasing power of the peso to at least 64 centavos, he said.

Because of the above mentioned factors, the minimum wage of P366 per day now becomes P234.24.

Should the additional P155.80 increase gets approved, the minimum take home pay would be P521.80 per day.

Other labor groups who filed for a region-wide pay increase before the RTWPB-7 are the Lonbisco Employees Organization (LEO), Metaphil Workers Union (MWU), Nuwhrain-Montebello Charter, N-Katipunan and Unionbank Employees Association (UBEA).