Wage bill headed for graveyard

With only three weeks to go before Congress adjourns its first regular session, the bill that seeks an increase of P125 in the daily minimum wage, which is pending in the House of Representatives, appears headed for the graveyard.

Lawmakers are apparently leaving wage-fixing to tripartite regional wages and productivity boards, which are expected to announce higher wages by the end of the month.

The measure, which has raised concern among employers, has been endorsed by the labor committee. It is now in the plenary sponsorship stage, meaning it is the entire House, no longer the committee, that is tackling it. Any bill that reaches this stage must have the support of the majority bloc.

Not in the case of the P125 wage hike bill. Its authors, who are mostly militant and activist party-list representatives who include Satur Ocampo, Teodoro Casiño and Crispin Beltran, had tried but failed several times to get the bill to the plenary sponsorship level.

They finally succeeded Tuesday last week. They were allowed to deliver their sponsorship speeches, but that was it. On Wednesday, the last session day of the House for that week, the measure was back in the freezer.

The House will hold sessions for nine more days before adjourning on June 10 for the second regular session, which will open on July 25. It is not likely that the chamber, assuming it musters a quorum every session day until adjournment, will approve the wage hike bill.

Over the weekend, Majority Leader Prospero Nograles said most members of the majority would like to subject the measure to lengthy debate.

"They would like to question the wisdom of the bill. They feel that a P125 legislated wage hike will kill many medium and small-scale businesses in the provinces," he said.

Nograles said the fact that the measure reached the plenary sponsorship stage does not mean that the majority supports it.

"We have to take it up in plenary because it was endorsed by the labor committee. But it cannot predict the outcome of the debates and the vote. Each member will have to make his or her own decision," he said.

He stressed that at every turn of the process through which the wage hike measure will be subjected, a quorum must always be present.

In previous sessions, efforts by the bill’s authors to get the measure to the plenary level were blunted by members of the majority who questioned the lack of quorum. Usually, it is the minority that raises the quorum question.

Minority Leader Francis Escudero, who had joined his militant colleagues in pushing for the bill, said he felt that the majority "is just giving the measure’s authors and its intended beneficiaries, who are the millions of workers, false hopes."

Last Friday, seven regional wage boards declared that an immediate increase in the daily take-home pay of workers in their respective regions was justified.

Labor Undersecretary and spokesman Benedicto Ernesto Bitonio had said seven of the 17 regional tripartite wages and productivity boards (RTWPBs) confirmed that "supervening conditions" prevail and that a salary increase should be granted. Supervening conditions mean that there is an extraordinary increase in the prices of petroleum products and other essential commodities.

"With the declaration, there is no more legal impediment against a salary increase," Bitonio said. He added that the boards must now wait for the approval of the National Wages and Productivity Commission (NWPC) so they can come out with a wage order.

Upon the NWPC’s approval, the RTWPBs will proceed to determine the amount, coverage, form and effectivity of the wage grant, Bitonio said.

According to him, most of the RTWPBs are legally prohibited from issuing a wage increase because, under the law, wage orders should not be altered within 12 months of their implementation.

With the declaration of the supervening conditions, however, the RTWPBs are already allowed to grant increases in the daily take-home pay in the form of salary adjustments or emergency cost of living allowances, he said.

The National Capital Region (NCR), the Ilocos Region, Central Luzon, Western Visayas, Caraga, Central Visayas and Southern Mindanao were the regions that declared supervening conditions.

Bitonio said the NWPC will deliberate on the findings of the seven RTWPBs, adding that the NWPC is expected to decide whether or not to confirm the declaration today.

Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye earlier said initiatives in Congress and by the wage boards were not "mutually exclusive," since it is possible to effect a wage hike based on an order issued by the regional wage boards or a law passed by the legislature.

On May 1, President Arroyo ordered the regional wage boards to come up with the recommendations within 30 days to determine a "reasonable" wage hike that could be given to the workers.

Some employers say they cannot afford large wage increases at this time and should not be forced to grant the hikes. Employers warned that any wage hike that is beyond their capacity to pay may cause their firms to close.