Eastern Visayas wage board to rule on pay hike

TACLOBAN CITY, Oct. 15 (PNA) - The Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board (RTWPB) will likely adjust the region’s minimum wage in Eastern Visayas after both employers and workers evaded serious debates on pay hike.

In a public hearing held at the Ritz tower de Leyte on Thursday, Department of Labor and Employment Regional Director and RTWPB chairman Elias Cayanong said that the board would deliberate the wage issue for a month.

By December, the board will come up with a decision and it will take effect early next year, according to Cayanong.

The need for wage increase was determined through public consultations held earlier in Ormoc City and Catbalogan, Samar, participated by 200 representatives from the management and labor sectors.

"We gave our full trust and confidence to the board that they can give us a fair and reasonable increase in minimum wage," said Noli del Rosario, an official of Philippine and Refinery Corp., representing the management sector.

However, a representative fr

om the Southern Leyte employees union said that the board should really grant an additional wage increase, not just the integration of the COLA to the basic pay.

The region's current wage structure, Wage Order No. 18, integrates a Php 15 cost-of-living allowance (COLA) into the basic wage for all sectors except for the sugar industry, raising it to Php 253 a day for non-agriculture workers, Php 231 for the cottage/handicraft sector, Php 228 for retail/service employees, and Php 234 for the non-sugar agriculture sector.

For the sugar industry, all workers received an additional wage adjustment of Php 14.50. The Php 15 COLA was granted under Wage Order No. 16 issued in May 2011.

The pay adjustment is expected to affect around 400,000 employees in the region. (PNA)
RMA/SQM/DARA PEARL P. DACUYAN, LNU INTERN/EGR