BY ADRIAN P. NEMES III
The labor sector in Western Visayas will file a wage increase petition of P50 to P70 probably next week, labor representative Wennie Sancho said yesterday.
Sancho said the petition will be jointly filed by General Alliance of Workers Associations and Philippine Agricultural Commercial and Industrial Workers Union headed by Hernan Braza.
He said this is their last recourse after their manifestation for Pandemic Emergency Relief Assistance (Pera) for the workers in Western Visayas, including Negros Occidental was not acted upon.
Sancho expressed dismay after their manifestation was deferred by the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board for the reason that they are still waiting for the official reports from the National Economic Development Authority.
The next virtual meeting for the PERA is slated by the RTWPB on March 25.
Sancho said that RTWPB should no longer wait for the NEDA report because the one provided by the economic statistics authority is already sufficient.
He said he believes that the hearing for PERA is being delayed because of the wage freeze policy being implemented to stop inflation from shooting up.
Aside from that, the government is also implementing the deficit spending or borrowing of money instead of increasing taxation and this affects the buying capacity of the workers, Sancho also said.
Minimum wage for workers in Western Visayas is currently between P310 to P395 per day depending on their classification, while the daily pay hike provided for employees among non-agriculture, industrial and commercial establishments employing more than 10 employees is P30 under Wage Order 25.*
