Representatives of the labor sector in the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board 6 yesterday turned down the proposal of employers for a P10 increase in the daily minimum wage in Western Visayas.

“It’s just (a) crumb of the bread, a cheap solicitation. Ten pesos is not even enough for a roundtrip fare. They should reconsider it considering the unprecedented increases in the prices of basic commodities,” Wennie Sancho, who represents the workers sector in the wage board, said.

Hernane Braza, another labor representative, said the P10 wage increase, in the form of emergency cost of living allowance, is improper and unjust.

“It’s an insult to the workers. What can they buy with P10? That’s why we petitioned for P50, so we can help the workers cope with the economic difficulties,” he said.

On April 2, the RTWPB 6 received a petition for a P50 across-the-board minimum wage increase from the National Congress of Unions in the Sugar Industry of the Philippines-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines, and on May 2, the Wage Increase Solidarity-Negros also submitted a petition for a P125 daily minimum wage increase.

At the consultation on wage issues held at the Business Inn in Bacolod City yesterday, the Metro Bacolod Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Bacolod Filipino Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry jointly pushed for the granting of not more than P10 ECOLA per day to “help workers cope with the rising cost of essential commodities.”

“We, in the business sector believe that our employees’ needs should be addressed. However, the wage board should not lose sight of the fact that the micro, small, and medium enterprises suffer also from the adverse effects of the increase in prices,” the two business groups said in their position paper signed by Roberto Montelibano, president of MBCCI, and James Chua, president of BFCCCI.

The Confederation of Sugar Producers’ Associations Inc. Negros-Panay Chapter proposed an across-the-board increase of P10 in the daily minimum wage.

Its chairman, Federico Locsin III, said they favor an increase, but not to the extent being sought by the labor sector.

“CONFED believes that granting the petition for a P50 increase in the daily minimum wage would only push us deeper into a vicious cycle that has engulfed us,” the planters’ group said. That is, a wage increase will raise higher the labor component cost and thereby increase production cost. This will, in turn, push the prices of goods and commodities higher that will then provide another petition for another reason for a new petition, they said.

“Unless the situation is averted now and the petition for a P50 wage hike is denied, there could be no end to this cycle,” CONFED Negros-Panay said.

But Braza said that if business is suffering because of price increases, it’s even worse for the workers.

“They rely only on their wages for income, why would they hold back what’s due for the workers?” he said.

Sancho added that labor should not be treated as a commodity and workers should be treated as beneficiaries of economic production and not its mere elements.

Labor Regional Director Aida Estabillo, who also chairs the RTWPB 6, said the wage board is looking into the P50 petition for wage increase filed by the NACUSIP-TUCP.

The petition for P125 wage increase is now with Congress so we don’t have to touch on that, she said.

Estabillo said that, based on their consultations, in the Panay provinces – Aklan, Antique, Capiz, and Iloilo – the management sector was also proposing a minimum wage increase of P10 to P20.

She said that some employers are willing to increase minimum wage but most of them claimed they can grant only non-wage benefits such as housing or COLA.

“As soon as we conduct public hearing, we’ll deliberate and come up with a decision,” Estabillo said.

The public hearing is scheduled on May 22 at the Royal Amrei in Bacolod City, on the RTWPB announcement in a local newspaper said yesterday.*NLG

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