Traders raise closure fears over pay hike

ILOILO CITY—Employers are opposing workers’ demand for a P97 increase in daily minimum wage in Western Visayas this year, raising the specter of a downsized labor force and closure of businesses.

“Businesses in (the region) are extremely burdened at this time. More than anything, we want our businesses to survive and provide continuing employment to our workers,” leaders of 14 employers’ groups said in a joint position paper.

They asked the Regional Tripartite Wage and Productive Board (RTWPB) “to defer any wage increase this year.”

On Wednesday, the wage board conducted a consultation meeting with employers here on a petition for bigger pay filed last year by the Trade Union of Filipino Workers.

According to Wennie Sancho, labor representative to the RTWPB, workers in Western Visayas have been receiving P265 minimum daily wage, but the purchasing value is actually P153.43, brought about by the continued increase in the prices of oil products, basic commodities and services.

Sancho said the P12 emergency cost-of-living allowance (Ecola) granted by the board on July 16, 2011, failed to help families of workers meet their basic needs.

Sancho and labor representative Hernane Braza deplored the employers’ position against wage increases even if most of them are not covered by orders of the wage board. Of the 45,315 business firms in the region, 41,850 are categorized as microfirms or those with less than 10 employees, which could seek exemption from wage orders, Braza said.

Only 3,465 firms are required to implement the minimum wage and wage increase orders, he added.

The Negros-based Confederation of Sugar Producers Association (Confed), which has 18 associations of sugar planters under its umbrella, is also opposing any wage increase.

“The price of sugar has gone down by half and production has also decreased by 30 percent. We cannot afford to grant any increase now,” Herman Santos, Confed manager, told the Inquirer.

The employers’ statement was signed by leaders of the Iloilo Business Club Inc., Iloilo Multi-Sectoral Business Organization Inc., Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Iloilo Inc., Federation of Filipino-Chinese Chamber of Commerce of Iloilo, Filipino-Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry–Panay chapter, Philippine Chinese Chamber Commerce of Iloilo Inc., Iloilo Hotels Restaurants and Resorts Association, the Philippine Retailers Association-Iloilo chapter, Ilonggo Producers Association, Iloilo Bakers Association, Panay Truckers Association, Iloilo Rice Traders Association, Health and Wellness Association of Iloilo, and the Iloilo Convention and Visitors Bureau of Iloilo Inc.