The Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board (RTWPB) is expected to decide on the wage hike for workers in Western Visayas on Tuesday, Oct. 21, Labor Regional Director Sixto Rodriguez Jr. said.
The Western Visayas RTWPB held public hearings on the wages of workers in private establishments and domestic workers at the Social Hall of the Negros Occidental Capitol in Bacolod City on Monday.
Rodriguez said although Negros Occidental is now part of the Negros Island Region it will be covered by the Western Visayas wage order since the NIR has no RTWPB yet.
Negros Oriental and Siquijor that are part of the NIR will also be covered by the RTWPB Central Visayas wage order, he added.
Rodriquez said that any wage increase granted for WV would most probably be similar to what was just granted in Central Visayas.
The RTWPB 7 on September 16 approved a wage increase ranging from P33 to P43 in Central Visayas. The new daily minimum wage in Central Visayas will range between P453 to P501.
The current wage in Western Visayas for non-agricultural workers is P480 and P450 for agricultural workers, Rodriguez said.
The United Labor-Western Visayas, an alliance of labor groups, submitted a petition to the RTWPB-6 calling for a daliy wage increase of P150.
“The demand for an adequate wage increase in Western Visayas, is the social right to demand for just compensation, for the value of labor power that the workers put in to fuel the industry and economy in general. Unfortunately, however, minimum wages in Region 6 have remained inadequate to support decent living after almost three decades and a half of wage rationalization,” Wennie Sancho, General Alliance of Workers Association secretary general, said.
Frank Carbon of the Metro Bacolod Chamber of Commerce and Industry said they are opposing a wage increase at this time as it will further drive up inflation in Western Visayas.
The RTWPB should instead look into how to bring down food inflation in the region that is hurting minimum wage earners, he said.
Western Visayas has the highest food inflation in the whole country because of the P110 wage increase in 2022 and P30 the following year, Carbon said.
The RTWPB-6 also held a hearing on the wages of kasambahays (domestic workers) in Western Visayas, which is at P5,000 a month or the second lowest in the country, Rodriguez said.
The rates in other parts of the country are from P6,000 to P7,000, he said.
There were was no petition for wage increases for domestic workers but the RTWPB-6 decided motu proprio to conduct a hearing on a possible increase, Rodriguez said.*