Central Visayas wage hike: P13 from allowances

GOVERNMENT workers are demanding wage increases, too, and are sending a message that millions of others depending on their salaries can relate to. LYN RILLON

CEBU CITY—Workers in Central Visayas, including those in areas where wage levels were frozen following last year’s earthquake and Supertyphoon “Yolanda,” will get P13 more in daily salaries, according to the head of the region’s wage board.

Exequiel Sarcauga, chair of the Regional Tripartite Wage and Productivity Board, said the board had approved Supplemental Wage Order No. 18, which integrates P13 in cost-of-living-allowance (Cola) with the basic pay of workers in areas where wage levels have been frozen following the two disasters.

The order that gave the workers P13 in Cola took effect on March 21. The new order integrates this amount with the basic pay of workers in the region.

The order granting the P13 Cola had frozen wage levels in areas hit by the two disasters in the provinces of Bohol and Cebu.

Bohol was hardest hit by the Oct. 15, 2013, quake, while parts of Cebu were hit by Yolanda in November last year.

The areas in Cebu where wage levels have been frozen are Bogo City and the northern Cebu towns of San Remigio, Medellin, Tabuelan, Tabogon, Tuburan, Daanbantayan, Sogod, Borbon, Camotes Island and Bantayan Island. The entire Bohol was covered by the wage-freeze provision in the Cola order.

Churches and many other structures were destroyed or suffered damage when a 7.2-magnitude earthquake shook Bohol.

In a press conference at the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) regional office in this city on Monday, Sarcauga said the Cola integration, which would effectively increase workers’ basic pay in the region, would take effect on Dec. 14.

The basic salary of workers in Metro Cebu areas will increase to P340 per day. Outside Metro Cebu, except Bantayan and Camotes islands, the basic salary will increase to P320.

Workers in Bohol and Negros Oriental province will get a minimum daily wage of P310, while those in Siquijor province and Bantayan and Camotes islands will get P295 a day.

Sarcauga said companies or establishments might apply for an exemption from the new wage order if they qualified as “distressed” firms.

These businesses have 75 days from the date of publication of the order to apply for an exemption, which will be valid for only a year.

Sarcauga said establishments that failed to seek an exemption during the allotted period would have to comply with the new wage order.