P125 across-the-board wage increase unlikely

MALOLOS, Bulacan — Employers might not agree to a P125 across-the-board wage hike for workers nationwide, Labor and Employment Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas said yesterday.

In an interview over radio station dzMM, Sto. Tomas said it is impractical for business establishments to grant the salary increase demanded by organized labor as 95 percent of them are small and medium enterprises employing a minimum of 10 people and a maximum of 50.

However, Sto. Tomas said some companies, which can afford it, have already given their employees a minimum wage hike of P5-20 a day.

"These wage increases have already been approved by the National Wage Productivity Board, and the regional wage boards have already approved such increases in their areas," she said.

"In Metro Manila, some companies have started giving out a P20 increase to their employees. There are companies that were able to give as much as P200 depending on their capabilities, and as per negotiation of their collective bargaining agreements."

Sto. Tomas said if the wage hike is implemented, companies might resort to retrenchment and mass layoffs, which might pose another threat to the economy, should investors decide to pull out of the country due to high labor costs.

Meanwhile, militant groups led by Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) are bent on holding a massive, nationwide protest action to call on the government to grant a P125 wage increase, abolish the regional wage boards, and scrap practices like labor contractualization and those aimed at busting labor unions.

The protest action would push through whether they would be given a permit by authorities, KMU national president Elmer Labog said.

In Malacañang, Budget and Management Secretary Emilia Boncodin assured yesterday that employees of government agencies to be moved outside Metro Manila would not be dislocated.

"There is no cause for undue apprehension or alarm over sudden dislocation of affected workers," she said.

"These rationalization programs are being done to bring government closer to the people and deliver optimum service at less cost."

Boncodin said the DBM is set to implement Mrs. Arroyo’s plan to transfer the head office of certain departments outside Metro Manila in consultation with the Cabinet secretaries concerned.

"The government is prepared to implement the President’s directive for the deployment of key Cabinet departments to the regions, although our plan will have to be calibrated to the availability of resources," she said.

"The relocation of key departments will push through in full transparency and consultation. We have to balance our exigency and affordability, as well as the well being of affected government workers. We need the support of the whole bureaucracy for this effort."

Earlier, Mrs. Arroyo has ordered the transfer of the following agencies outside Metro Manila:

• Department of Agriculture, from Quezon City to Zamboanga City.

• Department of Tourism, from Manila to Cebu City.

• Department of Transportation and Communications, from Pasig City to Clark Field in Pampanga.

• Department of Land Reform, from Quezon City to Iloilo City.

• Department of Defense, from Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City to Zamboanga City. — James Mananghaya, Marichu Villanueva