Top Davao labor exec sees need for pay hike

DAVAO CITY—The highest-ranking labor official in the Davao region has acknowledged that there is now a need to raise wages for workers in the region amid a rising cost of living.

Joffrey Suyao, regional director for Davao of the Department of Labor and Employment, said, however, that workers in the region should not expect wages to increase anytime soon as requirements for that to happen had to be complied with.

Suyao said that initially, members of the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board, which has the power to reject or approve petitions for wage increases, have to first review the last order  the board issued, which was in 2012 and not for a wage adjustment.

Suyao added that public hearings, which he said were currently ongoing, had to be completed first before the wage board decides whether or not to increase wages.

The last order  the wage board issued dealt with the cost of living allowance (Cola), not even wages. In 2012 the board ordered an additional P15 across-the-board Cola for workers in the region.

The current basic pay for workers in the region—four Davao provinces and Compostela Valley—is P286 in nonagriculture businesses employing more than 10 workers, P276 in agriculture businesses and P255 for retail or service sector businesses employing not more than 10 workers.

Militant groups in the region are demanding a P125 across-the-board increase in minimum wages but business leaders are quick to oppose it.

“A P125 across-the-board wage increase is economic suicide,” said Bonifacio Tan of  Davao City Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Tan said the current business climate in the region was “unkind” to everyone, and any increase in wages would  not be appropriate.

“It is untimely,” said Tan, citing frequent outages in the region as one of the reasons businesses are suffering.

Businessman John Gaisano, speaking for the retailers’ group in the city, even labeled proposed salary increases as “outrageous.”

He criticized those who are “always focusing on salary increases, but not on creating jobs through business growth.”

Labor leader Antonio Tuberia said that while the labor sector understood the position of businesses in areas that had been hit by Typhoon “Pablo” in 2012, workers could not understand the opposition to wage increases by businesses that were not even in areas hit by the storm.

Tuberia said business groups simply kept repeating the same arguments against wage increases every time workers demand better pay.

“We never heard businesses supporting wage increases,”  Tuberia said.

He said business leaders should recognize that workers contribute to the growth of companies, and it is only right to repay them by giving them fair wages.

“The minimum wage that workers are receiving now is not enough for a family of six. Even an increase could not address a workers’ daily needs,” he said. Ayan C. Mellejor, Inquirer Mindanao