Wage board asks workers' group to explain petition for increase

The Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board in the region is asking the Alliance for Progressive Labor to justify its petition seeking for a P95 adjustment in the daily minimum wage.

Exequiel Sarcauga, the board's secretary said that the RTWPB 7 has read the petition and sees no supervening event that would guarantee a wage increase.

"The board asked them to submit data to justify that there is need for wage increase because under the law we cannot disturb the pending wage order if it has not yet reached 12 months," he explained.

Sarcauga said Wage Order No. 11, which granted a P15 increase on top of the minimum wage of workers in Central Visayas was issued on June 16, 2005, or less than a year ago.

He said the RTWPB is asking APL if there are certain conditions that warrant an adjustment in wages and justify them before the board.

"When we adjusted the wage last year, there were several supervening events like adjustment in fares, oil price increases and high inflation rate," he said.

This year, Sarcauga explained that there has been no adjustment in fares yet, the effect of the implementation of the Reformed Value Added Tax is also minimal and the peso-dollar exchange rate is low.

On February 27, APL, the Employees Association of Robinson's Supermarket, the Shemberg Employees Independent Union, the Nagkahiusang Mamumuo sa LBF Hardware, Kan-irag Employees Labor Organization and Public Interest Advocacy and Litigation Office submitted their petition seeking for a P95 adjustment in the minimum daily wage in the region.

In their petition, workers said that since the P15 wage adjustment took effect last year, there are lots of supervening events that warrant and justify the review of the existing wage structure and issuance of the new wage order.

They cited the implementation of 10 percent RVAT in November last year and increase of the same to 12 percent this year that resulted to spiraling oil price increases, hike in prices of basic commodities and decrease in workers' purchasing power as reasons for seeking hike in basic wage.

Workers also said that by the end of 2005, the inflation rate in the region stood at 6.5 percent that greatly deteriorated the purchasing capacities of daily wage earners.

"Immediate economic relief must be extended to the workers by augmenting their income by P95 on a daily basis to maintain the purchasing power of the workers in the 1989 level. This amount, however, does not provide for the living wage mandated by the Philippine Constitution," the petition said.

They also demand that the P95 adjustment be extended to all non-agricultural and agricultural workers in the region because the previous wage orders are "discriminatory" since the adjustments given in different sectors were not equal. - Wenna A. Berondo