CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) said yesterday it considers as “urgent” the P90 daily wage hike petition of the labor sector in Central Luzon amid latest statistics showing an abrupt inflation rate spike in the region since last March.
In an interview with Punto, DOLE regional director Leopoldo de Jesus noted studies of the regional office of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) indicating that the inflation rate of 2.67 percent only last March jacked up to 4.4 percent this month. Inflation rate refers to the percentage increase in the price of goods and services.
De Jesus said that while the last wage increase in Central Luzon took effect only last November which was two years following the last pay hike in 2008, another wage hike has become an “urgent concern.”
The last increase in the region provided for a P24 hike in the daily minimum wage of workers in the region, including the integration of the workers’ old P10 cost-of-living allowance (COLA) into the basic pay and the granting of fresh P14 COLA. The original demand of workers in the region then, however, was P75.
De Jesus said the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) representatives in Central Luzon had filed recently the P90 minimum wage increase amid the rise of basic goods and services in the region.
He said the increase in inflation rate could be considered an “intervening factor” that could justify wage hike, as the law provides that ordinarily, minimum wage increase is allowable only after a year since the last wage hike.
“We now consider the wage increase issue as an urgent concern,” he said.
De Jesus, however, declined to comment on the reaction of the management sector to the proposed P90 wage hike. “We are on the planning stage and we are still deliberating,” he said.
He said public hearings in various parts of Central Luzon have already been slated for attendance of both labor and management sectors, together with representatives from concerned government agencies.
De Jesus said that by June, any adjustments on possible wage hike could already be firmed up and announced.
At present, workers in Central Luzon provinces, except Aurora, who work in non-agricultural firms with assets of more than P30 million get a minimum pay of P316 per day, while those in firms with less than P30 million assets get P308.50.
Agricultural workers in plantations get P286 daily and non-plantation workers, P270. Those employed in hospitals with more than 20-bed capacity receive P307, while those in smaller hospitals get P292.
Workers in retail establishments with 16 or more workers are entitled to P305, with those in retail with less than 16 personnel get P291. Handicraft and cottage industry workers are entitled to P270 minimum wage.
In Aurora province, rates have always been different from the rest of Central Luzon. Non-agricultural workers get P265 daily minimum, while agricultural workers receive P230. Those in retail and service establishments get P187 daily.
The Regional Tripartite Wage and Productivity Board (RTWPB) here 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.”
