A UNIFORM minimum wage throughout the country can only be done if Congress repeals Republic Act (R.A.) 6727 or the Wage Rationalization Act which created the National Wages and Productivity Commission (NWPC) and the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board (RTWPB).
“The R.A. 6727, creates the RTWPBs which has the concept that each region, after considering the peculiarities, come out with a different wage rate for that particular region,” Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE)-7 Regional Director Alvin Villamor said.
“RTWPBs should be abolished if they want Congress to come out with a minimum wage across the country. We should be able to do it without RTWPBs,” he added.
Villamor, however, favors promulgating new minimum wages for different regions because of the effect of the train law.
“We (from the wage board) are already in a consensus to increase. The only question is how much? We are at that state already, even before Sec. (Silvestre) Bello came out with a pronouncement to activate RTWPBs for new round of (wage) increase,” he said.
He said that workers in Central Visayas can now positively expect an increase in their minimum wage next month.
“By June, we might already be able to promulgate a new wage order,” Villamor added.
Uniform Wages
On Monday, the House Makabayan bloc filed House Bill 7787, seeking to increase the national minimum wage to P750, to “ease the suffering” of Filipinos due to the implementation of the Tax Reform Acceleration and Inclusion (Train) Law.
The bloc also wants a return to a national wage standard instead of a region based one.
The proposed measure also seeks to amend the Labor Code, specifically to abolish the NWPC and its 17 RTWPBs, which is mandated to fix and regulate the minimum wage in the provinces.
If approved, the wage-setting function will be restored to Congress and a uniform P750 national minimum wage will be legislated.
The bill also warrants a yearly adjustment of the minimum wage of workers across the country by the President and provides stiffer fines against employers who violate the minimum wage.