The Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board Region 7 heard yesterday representatives of management and labor sectors on the pending petition for a salary increase in Dumaguete City.

Jose Tomongha, labor representative to the wage board and chair of the Alliance of Progressive Labor, said they petitioned for a P121.84 across-the-board increase.

He said the high price of petroleum products is one factor in determining a supervening condition. “After several rollbacks in the prices of petroleum products, the cost of basic commodities remains high”, he said.

Tomongha said the inflation rate has also gone up, from 1.6 to 3.9, and that purchasing power of the peso is down from P68 to only P54.

But Hidelito Pascual, representing the management sector, said the law states there should not be two salary increases within one year unless a supervening condition exists.

Pascual said that, based on the data supplied by the Department of Trade and Industry, there have been no major changes or increases in the prices of basic commodities and that the increase in inflation rate is within the prediction of the monetary board for 2012.

Pascual told the petitioners to wait for September so there’s no need to determine the presence of a supervening condition. The last wage hike in Region 7 took effect on September 2011.

The hearing was the first to be conducted to assess the economic condition of workers in Dumaguete and the province.

Regional director Ma. Gloria Tango of the Department of Labor and Employment, said the provincial review-assessment is being conducted “to get a clearer picture of what’s happening in the field, whether or not a supervening condition actually exists”.

Present at the consultation were Maria Melissa Guantero, representing NEDA regional director Buenaventura Go-Soco Jr., RTWPB Board secretary Grace Carreon, ALU-TUCP district officer Felizardo Calimpong, Greg Uymatiao, representatives from the labor unions in the academe and hospitals, and the public.*JG

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