Palace: It’s up to Congress to abolish all wage boards

Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo. INQUIRER file photo

MANILA, Philippines – Malacañang is leaving it to Congress to decide whether to scrap wage boards nationwide after a labor group has urged President Rodrigo Duterte to abolish them.

Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Boards were created by law and a legislative action is required f it needs to be abolished.

The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) has called on Duterte to replace the existing wage boards with “a singular wage-fixing body,” citing an “urgent need”  to overhaul the 30-year-old current wage setting structure and set a uniform minimum wage rate nationwide.

“The call of certain groups to abolish these and replace them with a singular wage-fixing body requires congressional fiat,” Panelo said in a statement.

“The President will initially defer to the wisdom of both houses of Congress as to amending the pertinent provisions relating to the existing wage boards,” he added.

Despite this, Panelo, who also serves as Chief Presidential Legal Counsel, said the Executive would “review and study the proposed change of structure of these boards.”

He said Republic Act No. 6727, or the Wage Rationalization Act, “was enacted into law in 1989 to rationalize wage policy determination by establishing the mechanism and proper standards therefor.”

“In particular, Article 122 thereof created the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Boards,” he added.

“The rationale behind their creation, Panelo said, was “due to the different characteristics and peculiarities apropos their respective commercial settings, a vital factor in determining the applicable wages of the subject constituents.”

“Whether the extinguishment of these boards is beneficial cannot be decided by one interest group alone. It requires consultation among our partners in various sectors, including those legitimately representing labor,” he pointed out. /kga