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)