West Visayas workers get P11.50 pay hike per day

BACOLOD CITY—Wages of workers in Western Visayas have been increased by P11.50 which militant groups said is barely enough for a decent meal but which a wage board official said was the result of a “balancing act.”

The increase is lower than that given workers in Metro Manila (P15) early this month and Central Visayas (P13) last year.

Observers said the amount is not even enough for a decent meal in a roadside eatery.

But Ponciano Ligutom, Department of Labor and Employment director for Western Visayas, said the wage board decided on the amount on the basis of three factors—workers’ needs, employers’ capacity to pay and whether increasing wages would affect the region’s competitiveness.

“It was a balancing act,” said Ligutom, who also chairs the Western Visayas wage board.

Daily wage in Western Visayas is now P298.50 from P287 for workers in nonagriculture, industrial and commercial establishments with more than 10 workers.

Workers in establishments with fewer than 10 workers will get a daily wage of P256.50 from P245.

Daily wage in the agriculture sector would increase to P266.50 from P255 in plantation companies and P256.50 from P245 in nonplantation companies.

Labor officials in the region hope to implement the wage adjustment before May 1, Labor Day.

But Wennie Sancho, labor representative in the wage board, refused to sign the wage order as a sign of protest.

Sancho said the wage order “is a document of oppression because it perpetuates the poverty of people.”

“It is not even enough to buy a small bottle of mineral water,” he said.

Militant labor groups had been demanding a P135 across the board increase in daily wages, saying current wage levels have failed to catch up with rising prices of basic commodities.

But efforts to pressure Congress to legislate a wage increase have failed, largely because of opposition from legislators who own businesses themselves that would be affected by any wage increase.

Even moderate labor groups, like the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP), decried the P15 wage increase given workers in Metro Manila.

TUCP, in a previous statement reported by Inquirer, said the wage increase was just an insult to workers. Carla P. Gomez, Inquirer Visayas