Central Mindanao workers to get P10 pay hike

GENERAL SANTOS CITY—Workers in Central Mindanao are to receive a daily wage increase of P10-P14 after the region’s wage board approved a petition to adjust minimum daily wages amid a continuing increase in fuel prices.

The new wage order will take effect in May, which officials of the labor department said was their Labor Day gift to workers.

Militant groups, however, branded the wage increase as a pittance, saying it was not even one-fourth of what workers are demanding—P125.

Chona Mantilla, regional labor director, said the wage increase was approved on Monday at a meeting of the wage board.

From P260 per day, nonagricultural workers in Central Mindanao will receive P270 in daily wage, Mantilla said.

Agricultural workers would receive a daily wage increase of P14, but in two increments—P8 in May and P6 in December.

New businesses and those in areas stricken by recent calamities would be exempt from the wage order, said Mantilla.

“Our constant main indicators are the needs of workers and the capacity to pay of employers,” she said.

She said the wage board could not grant the demand for a P125 increase because “it is just too high.”

“If we are going to adopt this, many businesses would shut down and others may resort to retrenchments,” she said. Aquiles Z. Zonio, Inquirer Mindanao