Twelve business and planters' groups in Negros Occidental yesterday issued an open letter calling on labor to rethink their stand on a P15 legislated wage increase, saying it will spell doom for everyone.

The business and planters groups said they are against wage fixing by Congress and are, instead, for properly studied wage increases handled by the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Boards. The House has passed a bill for a P125 across-the-board wage increase to be implemented over three years, and the passage of a counterpart bill in the Senate is being awaited.

Let us have a closer scrutiny of the impact and repercussions of a legislated wage hike, the business and planters groups said.

They said a legislated wage increase will result in more misery because millions will lose their jobs due to massive lay offs.

This will be an offshoot of various micro, small and medium enterprises closing or downsizing their businesses and operating underground, they said.

Investors will also be driven away because of the high cost of labor and production, and more underground economic ventures will flourish beyond the reach of regulating authorities at the expense of the consuming public, they added.

They also said a legislated across-the-board wage increase will leave no room for collective bargaining negotiations.

We must rethink our respective positions as partners and move forward in unity to find alternative solutions to our common woes, they said.

The open letter was from the Metro Bacolod Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Northern Negros Filipino Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Association of Negros Producers Inc.;

Private Hospitals Association of the Philippines Negros Occidental, Bacolod Filipino Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry Inc., Southern Negros Filipino Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry, National Federation of Sugarcane Planters;

Philippine Association of Detective and Protective Agency Operators, Negros Occidental Filipino Chinese Amity Club Inc., Association of Filipino Indians in Negros Occidental, Planters Association of Southern Negros and Negros Island Shell Dealers Association*CPG

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