Employers can only give no more than P13.35 as daily wage hike—ECOP

MANILA, Philippines—Metro Manila employees can expect no more than an additional P13.35 to their daily wage, as this is the best that employers can offer, given the rising costs of production.

Edgardo Lacson, president of the Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP), gave this statement on Wednesday, saying employees were not the only ones suffering from the escalating prices of fuel. Businesses, he said, have started to feel the pinch.

“It’s not only the wage that will have to increase. We also have to consider the increasing costs of electricity and water. As employers, we also have to look at our costs,” he told reporters on the sidelines of the National Conference of Employers on Wednesday.

He said that according to ECOP’s computations, the erosion rate of the purchasing power in Metro Manila was only P13.35 a day, as of March.

This amount, according to Lacson, is the maximum that employers could afford to give, in terms of a daily wage increase. The amounts for specific employers could still vary and might even be lower, based on a particular employer’s capacity to pay.

If employers were forced to give more, such as the P75-daily wage hike the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines has been seeking, he said employers might be forced to retrench, rotate work among existing employees, close shop or go underground.

Malacañang directed regional wage boards to quickly resolve wage hike issues due to a “supervening condition,” or the escalating prices of fuel. The first hearing was held last May 2.

Lacson said a wage hike order could be published by May 15 and take effect by June 1.

Even before any wage hike order could be issued, he related that around 400 Japanese companies operating in the Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon) areas had already started letting go of employees.

“These are mainly exporters of auto parts and electronic components that get their raw materials from Japan. They’ve cut production and have even shut down, so they had to let people go,” he said.