ANGELES CITY – Amid an inflation rate that jacked up from 2.67 to 4.4 percent in two months in Central Luzon, the government announced yesterday a P14 increase in minimum wage in the region.
The Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board (RTWPB) said the increase would integrate the current P14 cost of living allowance (COLA) into the basic pay of the wage earners.
No one from the RTWPB could be reached to clarify how much would be the new COLA of the workers.
Once implemented, the highest paid workers, or those employed in non-agricultural establishments whose assets are worth over P30 million, would be entitled to P330 minimum pay per day as their last minimum wage granted only last November was P316.
The RTWPB said Wage Order No.RBIII-16 was approved last Monday following public hearings attended by both labor and management sector in various parts of Central Luzon.
Regional Director Leopoldo de Jesus of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) said in an earlier interview that the initial demand of the local Trade Union Council of the Philippines (TUCP) was for an increase of P90.
De Jesus said he backed the wage increase, as he noted figures from the regional office of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) indicating that the inflation rate of 2.67 percent only last March recently jacked up to 4.4 percent, indicating how much the cost of good and services had risen in the region.
De Jesus said that while last wage increase in Central Luzon took effect only last November which was two years since the previous pay hike in 2008, another wage hike had become an “urgent concern” because of the rise cost of living.
“After a thorough study on the region’s socio-economic situation, RTPWB deemed it necessary to provide workers with immediate relief from the rising costs of living taking into account the interests of both labor and management as well as the continued and sustained viability of business and industry,” De Jesus said in the statement.
The new wage rates would take effect 15 days after the publication of the wage order. Central Luzon minimum wage earners, except those in Aurora province, are to get a minimum daily wage of P330 per day if they are employed in non agricultural firms with assets of more than P30 million. Non agricultural workers in smaller firm are entitled to P322.50.
Agricultural workers in plantations are to get P300 daily and non plantation workers, P284. Those employed in hospitals with more than 20-bed capacity receive P321, while those in smaller hospitals get P306.
Workers in retail establishments with 16 or more workers are entitled to P319, while those in retail businesses with less than 16 personnel are to get P305.
Handicraft and cottage industry workers are entitled to P284 minimum.
In Aurora province, rates have always been different from the rest of Central Luzon. Non agricultural workers would be entitled to P279 daily minimum, while agricultural workers receive P244. Those in retail and service establishments get P201 daily.
The RTWPB said that any wage increase would be based on eight working hours per day, while workers who are “paid by results, including those paid on piecework, takay, pakyaw or task basis shall be entitled to receive the prescribed increase per eight hours a day, or a proportion thereof for working less than eight hours.”
