The Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board will hold a public hearing in January after it received two petitions for a minimum wage increase.
Ernesto Carreon, one of two board members representing the labor sector, said the 7-member RTWPB agreed last Wednesday to entertain two petitions filed by the Associated Labor Unions-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (ALU-TUCP) and the Alliance of Progressive Labor (APL).
ALU-TUCP is pushing for a P90 across-the-board increase in the floor wage increase while APL wants P130.
At present, private sector workers in Metro Cebu are mandated to receive P327 a day.
The floor wage is slightly less in other parts of Central Visayas, depending on location.
The wage board will start deliberating on the petitions in February after public hearings in January.
A one-year moratorium on new wage increase petitions expired last Dec. 7.
Carreon said the board will hold public hearings in Tagbilaran City (Jan. 9), Dumaguete City (Jan. 23) and Cebu City (Jan. 30).
He said all stakeholders – business, industries, labor groups and other workers organizations – will be invited to the hearings.
Carreon said while they will consider the situation of the employers whose businesses were affected by supertyphoon Yolanda and the earthquake, the wage board also must consider the plight of workers in those areas.
Exemption
The affected employers can ask for exemption if they could justify why they should not be covered by a possible wage increase order.
Carreon is the area vice president of ALU Central Visayas. He said Central Visayas is the second fastest growing economy next to the Caraga region, an indication that business enterprises can afford a wage hike.
He said while the region’s growth rate is second to Caraga, the inflation rate also rose to 5.8 percent this month compared to 3.8 last September based on the report from the National Economic Development Authority (Neda).
He said the report indicates that prices of basic commodities are also increasing.
“The purchasing power of the P327 daily minimum wage today is actually P241,” he said.
“So we are just asking for a wage adjustment and not even an increase,” he added.