Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Dock workers seek pay hike

published March 09, 2010 in BusinessWorld

TACLOBAN CITY -- A group of dock workers in this city yesterday filed a petition seeking an increase in their hauling charges.

In its petition, the Kapungunan han mga Trabahador ngan Hornal ha Tacloban (Katrabaho) demanded that the hauling charge per bag of cement be increased 87% to P1.50 from the current 80 centavos. The petition was signed by 100 dock workers in the city.

"Most of us are earning only P20 to P70 per day. Sometimes we don’t have income if there’s no shipment," Katrabaho president Napoleon Escalona said in a statement.

To earn the current daily minimum wage of P238 in the region, Mr. Escalona said a group of 16 workers needs to carry 4,360 sacks of cement every day, or about three bags per minute. With the proposed increase, the same number of haulers will have to carry only 2,326 bags, or nearly two sacks in one minute, to earn the minimum pay.

The group said the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board had approved an increase in dock workers pay in 2004 to P1 per bag of cement hauled from the previous 70 centavos.

But many hauling companies have been implementing only 80 to 90 centavos, Mr. Escalona claimed.

Wage board secretary Florencio G. Aguilos presented the petition before wage board members during their scheduled bimonthly meeting yesterday afternoon.

"The case study presented by the laborers will guide the wage board. It’s up to them to decide on this petition and how they will want this to be treated. I cannot say how long it would take," Mr. Aguilos said in a phone interview yesterday.

The petition is the first in the region by the group for the past six years.

"We will assess if there’s a valid ground for a wage review. If we find justification for review, we will conduct consultations. It should be a tripartite discussion," wage board chairman and Department of Labor and Employment regional director Forter G. Puguon said in a separate phone interview yesterday.

The last wage order for the region was issued in May 2008. Under Wage Order No. 15, a minimum wage worker in the region’s private sector must receive P220 basic pay and P18 cost-of-living allowance. (Sarwell Q. Meniano)

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Remote Eastern Visayas villages to have electricity in first half

published March 02, 2010

TACLOBAN CITY -- The government aims to power up 197 remote villages in Eastern Visayas within the first half.

Presidential Assistant for Eastern Visayas Cynthia R. Nierras said President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has ordered the Department of Energy and National Electrification Administration to release part of the P280-million nationwide electrification budget for Region 8.

"If the budget will be available early this year, electric cooperatives gave an assurance that the project will be finished by June 30, 2010," Ms. Nierras said in an interview.

Of the 197 villages without power, 134 are in Eastern Samar province, 49 in Samar, nine in Southern Leyte and five in Leyte. All villages in Northern Samar and Biliran have access to electricity.

Eastern Visayas has a total of 4,336 barangays with 4,139 having electricity as of December 2009. Remote areas tap solar and hydroelectric power as a source of electricity to reduce cost.

"In the area of rural energization, we are one of the regions with the highest accomplishment, which is above the 95% nationwide energization rate," Ms. Nierras said.

Economic planners in the region have noted the need to upgrade rural electrification given the increasing demand for energy in the next years.

In the Samar provinces, many far-flung areas have few potential customers, hindering the rural electrification initiative.

Considering the distance of some barangays from the town centers and access roads, the Regional Development Council has called on local government units to tap alternative sources of power to solve the problem. Island-municipalities in the region like Maripipi in Biliran are provided with generator sets.-Sarwell Q. Meniano