West Visayas wage increase stopped

BACOLOD CITY—Workers in Western Visayas areas hit by Supertyphoon “Yolanda” will stop receiving a P10 increase in daily wages for at least six months after the region’s wage board heeded a petition by business groups to freeze wage levels to help businesses get back on their feet after the storm.

Ponciano Ligutom, Western Visayas director of the Department of Labor and Employment, said the regional wage board approved a petition by the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) in the Western Visayas for a wage increase moratorium.

But Ligutom said only areas suffering from the disaster wrought by Yolanda were covered by the wage board decision.

The Office of Civil Defense (OCD) and local disaster councils, he said, have to first issue a certification that an area should be covered by the wage board decision before the moratorium takes effect.

The moratorium would be in effect for six months and this may be extended but only after a review, said Ligutom.

OCD role

Ligutom said identifying the areas to be covered by the wage increase moratorium would be done by the OCD.

Northern Negros and northern Panay are among the areas hardest-hit by Yolanda, though casualty figures in these areas are low compared with that in Tacloban City and other parts of the Eastern Visayas that suffered the brunt of Yolanda.

A P10 wage increase was implemented in the Western Visayas starting on Nov. 29.

In a Dec. 6 letter to Ligutom, the PCCI Western Visayas said a moratorium on wage increase should be in place “until such time that small and medium enterprises have fully recovered from this catastrophic event.”

“This call for a moratorium on all wage increases is aimed at bringing about political stability, economic recovery and improved local governance to the hard-hit provinces of Iloilo, Capiz, Antique, Aklan, Negros Occidental and Guimaras,” the letter said.

The letter was signed by Roberto Montelibano, PCCI Western Visayas governor; Frank Carbon, president of the Metro Bacolod Chamber of Commerce and Industry; and Joe Marie Agriam, head of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Iloilo Inc.

Wage levels

Prior to the P10 increase in wages that businesses have started implementing, the daily minimum wage in the Western Visayas as of May 31, 2012, for nonagriculture, industrial and commercial firms employing more than 10 workers is P277. For those employing 10 or fewer workers, the minimum daily pay is P235.

Agriculture and plantation workers receive P245 and nonplantation workers, P235 a day.

But Carbon said the moratorium on wage increase should be for the entire Visayas and not just selected typhoon-devastated areas.

Although some places in the Visayas, like Bacolod City, were not badly hit by Yolanda, these are also suffering from the effects of the storm with the constant brownouts that have brought losses to businesses, Carbon said.