There will be no wage increase for workers today, Labor Day, but there are many job opportunities here and abroad, according to Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz.
“We’re not expecting any minimum wage increase announcement,” said Baldoz in a press briefing yesterday. She explained that minimum wage adjustments have always been and would be decided upon by the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Boards (RTWPBs).
She added that the law has prohibited the wage board from issuing successive wage orders within a year without a “supervening condition”, or abrupt and sustained increases in the prices of oil, food and other essential commodities.
“As of now, we do not see any supervening conditions that would warrant a wage adjustment,” added Baldoz.
Even non-wage benefits are not expected to be given to workers in today’s celebration.
Baldoz said no non-wage benefits were considered during President Aquino’s dialogue with labor leaders Tuesday.
“Non-cash benefits can come either from the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), Social Security System (SSS), Philippine Health Insurance (Philhealth) or Pag-IBIG. They could avail of that,” she said.
Malacañang would not say if it will announce a minimum wage increase in time for Labor Day on Thursday.
Asked if President Aquino will be giving any good news, presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said, “I think yesterday (Tuesday) the President was able to share his views with the labor sector.”
Lacierda said the President has already met with labor leaders and discussed their concerns and what could be done to address the problems.
“There has been, by the way, as mentioned by the President, a total of 26 dialogues with various Cabinet members, which were held with labor groups last year,” he said.
Tax breaks
Aquino yesterday met with labor leaders who complained about low wages, high power rates and their request to receive tax breaks for salary increase from Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).
The President admitted that they will have to study the possibility of giving tax breaks without violating the constitutional provision on uniform taxation.
Lacierda assured the public that the Bureau of Internal Revenue and the Department of Labor and Employment are looking into the matter.
“That’s the reason why President Aquino ordered or instructed Secretary Baldoz and Commissioner Henares to sit down and study this thing further because, again, you have also the issue of the uniformity of taxation. We want to make sure that whatever we do should be uniform and should not unfairly prejudice any one sector,” he said.
Chona Mantilla, regional director for Central Visayas of the labor department, said about 17,000 jobs are waiting to be filled up by job-seekers in the region.
She said most of the job orders from 165 employers participating in the Labor Day job fairs in Cebu are for overseas. She said only 6,000 jobs are available locally.
There will be 165 companies that will be participating in the DOLE-sanctioned job fairs to be held at SM City Cebu, SM Consolacion, the Abellana Sports Complex, Cebu City and the Cebu Provincial Capitol.
Mantilla said they hope to fill up 50 to 70 percent of the job vacancies. Last year, over 20,000 applicants got jobs through the Labor Day job fairs, of which 5,000 were hired on the spot.
Meanwhile, more than 10,000 overseas and local jobs were available from 39 companies in a job fair held on the eve of Labor Day at the Benedicto College in Mandaue City.
The job fair which was meant primarily for fresh graduates was an initiative of Cebu 6th District Rep. Luigi Quisumbing.
According to the Philippine Statistics Authority, the employment rate in Region 7 as of Jan. 2014 was between 93.7 to 94.6 percent while unemployment was between 6 to 7 percent.
Unemployment rate hovers between 17 to 20 percent.
In the same period in 2013, employment rate in Region 7 was 92.6 percent, unemployment rate was 7.4 percent while underemployment rate was 19.4 percent. /With a report by Intern Rosemarie R. Cananea and Inquirer
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