Still no petition for wage hike in Region 1
THE labor sector in the Ilocos Region does not seem keen on a wage hike.
While workers in several other regions around the country have been recently granted their request for a wage increase recently, the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board (RTWPB) in Region 1 has yet to receive a similar petition.
Salvador Poserio, representative to the RTWPB-I from the employers’ sector, confirmed there is no petition on deck seeking a wage increase.
Poserio, also chairman of the Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP) chapter in Pangasinan, said should a petition be filed, the RTWPB-I, headed by Department of Labor and Employment Regional Director Henry John Jalbuena, will meet immediately and conduct consultations with the concerned sectors.
“Granting there is a petition, the wage board will study it very carefully because it believes that any wage increase without corresponding productivity is disastrous to regional growth and economic development,” said Poserio.
He added that the board will also conduct relevant studies on other indicators such as the purchasing power of the peso, inflation rate and poverty threshold in the region, which is composed of the provinces of Pangasinan, La Union, Ilocos Sur and Ilocos Norte.
The last wage increase based on a wage order approved by RTWPB-I was in 2008 where employees’ take-home pay was increased by P10 daily to P220 for workers in the services and retail sectors who make up 70 per cent of the region’s work force, and P118 and above in the agricultural sector.
RTWPB is composed of representatives from the government, the employers’ sector and the labor sector.–LM
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