‘Only non-wage benefits on Labor Day’

MANILA, Philippines—President Benigno Aquino III plans to hold a breakfast forum with labor leaders in Malacañang on May 1 but a wage hike is not yet on the agenda, Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz said Monday.

Baldoz said the government was looking at giving “non-cash” benefits to workers on Labor Day.

“There are non-cash benefits we are exploring from Pag-IBIG, PhilHealth … we are still looking at what’s possible,” Baldoz said at a press conference on the Department of Labor and Employment’s May 1 activities.

She said the Department of Trade and Industry was also studying giving discounts for basic commodities while the Department of Agriculture was mulling over more assistance to farmers.

A big job fair would also be held all over the country on that day.

On the possibility of a minimum wage hike, the labor chief said the regional wage boards of Metro Manila and western Visayas, which had declared a “supervening event” in their areas, would soon start holding public hearings.

“From there, they will determine the amount and nature of the increase—whether it is a wage adjustment or an increase in the cost of living allowance,” Baldoz said.

The Employers Confederation of the Philippines (Ecop), meanwhile, has urged organized labor to go slow on its clamor for a wage hike because fuel prices remained volatile in the world market.

Spiraling prices

With such a situation, a wage adjustment could trigger spiraling production costs and prices of commodities, said Ecop president Edgardo Lacson.

“In such an eventuality, wages and inflation would chase each other with workers at the losing end,” Lacson said in a statement.

The employers said a “feasible option” was to encourage collective bargaining so workers could freely negotiate with employers “who are willing to give relief to their workers without sacrificing enterprise viability.”

On the other hand, the Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) said wages in the Philippines would “remain at starvation levels while working conditions deteriorate further” unless the government provides a “family living wage (FLW).”

PM chair Renato Magtubo said the current wage fixing mechanism should be replaced by a new system that would institutionalize a “living wage” based on the cost of living.

Jobs available

Meanwhile, more than 100,000 jobs are up for grabs in various job fairs across the country on Labor Day, Baldoz said.

She said around 1,000 companies and recruitment agencies would be offering both local and foreign employment at the different jobs and livelihood fairs on May 1.

“We have announced the schedule and venues of the regional job and livelihood fairs and our preparation is in full swing,” she added.

In Metro Manila, Baldoz said the job fair would be held at Rizal Park, where 200 companies and recruiters would be offering 30,000 jobs.

Labor Undersecretary Hans Cacdac said they expect 50,000 applicants to flock to Rizal Park. The labor department said it was expecting more applicants this year due to the number of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) displaced by the conflicts in Libya and the Middle East.

“As we expect thousands of jobseekers, graduates and displaced OFWs to (visit) the designated venues across the country … we are continuously exerting all efforts and exhausting all means to provide a vast array of productive and matched job opportunities,” Baldoz said.

Bureau of Local Employment (BLE) director Maria Criselda Sy said the number of applicants hired on the spot in 2009 took 10 percent of jobs offered at the livelihood fairs in 2009. Last year, this increased to 13 percent.

“So this year, we hope the trend would continue. Hopefully 15 percent (would be hired on the spot),” Sy said.

Baldoz urged jobseekers to pre-register for the job fairs by logging on to www.phil-job.net. She said free Phil-Jobnet digital cards containing an applicant’s resumé would be distributed by the labor department to applicants in Metro Manila who pre-register.