Metro workers underpaid  – DOLE

Many workers in Metro Manila are not getting just wages and other financial benefits, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) reported yesterday.

Raymundo Agravante, DOLE-National Capital Region (NCR) acting director, said many employers are unable to comply with the prescribed minimum wage – making it the most violated law in the region.

“DOLE maintains a corps of inspectors to access compliance with labor laws but underpayment is still the leading violation by employers,” he said in a seven-page report.

Agravante noted that from January to July this year, DOLE-NCR found 245 commercial establishments violating the prevailing minimum wage rate.

The DOLE-NCR also found that close to 300 commercial firms were not providing their workers holiday pay and the mandated emergency cost of living allowance (ECOLA).

Despite the violations, Agravante said DOLE has not taken punitive actions against the establishments.

He said DOLE issued compliance orders to the owners of the commercial establishments and they immediately complied.

Recently, DOLE clarified that distressed and small private business firms in Metro Manila are exempted from the P12 salary increase that was granted to minimum wage earners in the metropolis earlier this year.

Labor Secretary Arturo Brion reported last Monday that the regional wage board in the National Capital Region (NCR) approved the salary increase as well as the inclusion of the P50 emergency cost of living allowance or COLA in the daily basic pay. This pegs the daily minimum wage in Metro Manila at P362.

National Wages and Productivity Commission (NWPC) executive director Esther Guirao said the pay hike will take effect only after the publication of the new wage order.

Under the new wage order, workers from barangay micro-business enterprises and those from companies facing financial losses will not get any wage increase.

Also exempted from the salary adjustments are companies affected by natural calamities and firms that employ less than 10 workers or have a capital below P3 million.

Domestic helpers and drivers are also not covered by the salary hike but those who are paid in task basis or the so-called pakyaw will get additional pay.

Disabled workers are also entitled to a full salary adjustment while trainees will get 75 percent of the total daily minimum wage pay.

The board said they came out with the decision after evaluating current socio-economic conditions and determining the need of workers for pay hike without impairing business viability in the region.

However, the country’s largest trade union rejected the P12 wage increase, which they claimed is not sufficient for workers to cope with the rising cost of basic commodities in Metro Manila.

The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) had earlier asked the government to grant a P75 daily wage increase.