Employers in Western Visayas have made a final minimum wage increase offer of only P10 to P30 per day, Wennie Sancho, labor representative to the wage board, said yesterday.

"Their final offer is 'as low as P10 and as high as P30.' Of course, we don't agree. It is an insult to the workers," he said. The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines has a pending petition for a P75-increase in minimum wage in the region.

But Sancho said the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board 6 has yet to deliberate on the employers' offer, after conducting a public hearing on a date they will set during their meeting on August 7.

The RTWPB 6, now chaired Regional Director Aida Estabillo, conducted their last three consultations in Roxas City, Capiz; Kalibo, Aklan; and Boracay Island last July 10, 11 and 12, respectively.

Sancho said the public hearing is a requirement for the deliberations.

"The workers should be provided with decent standard of living; a reasonable and frugal comfort. While they (employers) want to protect their profit margin, the workers strive to survive economically," he said.

Sancho again cited the study of the National Wages and Productivity Council, the living wage for a family of six in Western Visayas as of July 2005 is P512 a day.

Since the current minimum wage in the region is P222, then the amount is still short of P290, but the labor sector, with TUCP's Hernane Braza as another representative, had settled for P75.

Still, Sancho said yesterday they could opt for P53 a day instead of the P75 original petition.

"P53 is our fallback, our option aside from P75," he said.

That is, to achieve the P8,235 monthly pay needed by Western Visayas workers as shown in the latest National Statistical Coordination Board data.

Braza had earlier assured workers in Western Visayas that they will get an additional wage although not necessarily P75.*NLG

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