The Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board (RTWPB) has approved an increase in the daily minimum wage of private sector workers in Western and Central Visayas.

The wage board of Region 6 or Western Visayas added P41.50 to the daily minimum wages of non-agricultural workers. In establishments with less than 10 employees, P23.50 per day has been added.

Agricultural workers have increased P13.50 in their daily pay.

Johnson Cañete, regional director of Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) 6, said the new wage hike order will take effect in August.

“Under Wage Order No. 24, the wage rates in Western Visayas will now range from P295 to P365, up from the previous P271.50 to P323.50 under Wage Order No. 23,” Cañete, who also chairs RTPWB-6, said during a press briefing held at the Sugar Workers Development Center in Bacolod City last Monday.

Cañete said the amounts of increase include cost of living allowance (COLA) and depend on the workers’ category.

In Region 7 or Central Visayas, the RTWPB added P20 per day to the lowest minimum wage of workers working in Class A cities and towns while P15 for employees working in Classes B, C and D.

DoLE 7 Regional Director Alvin Villamor, who also chairs the RTWPB, said they will do their best to send their recommendation this week or next week to the National Wages and Productivity Commission.

“We saw some adverse effects of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion Law on workers. It has had some jarring effects on the economy,” Villamor explained

The Associated Labor Unions (ALU), however, said the new wage increase rates in two regions do not boost workers out of poverty.

Alan Tanjusay, spokesman of ALU, said it is also bound to create more poverty problems caused by migration of workers and their families with the segmentation of wage rates, particularly in the Central Visayas.

Aside from inadequate wage rates, Tanjusay said the segmentation of wage rates in various classifications, in Region 7 for example, would lead to greater problems due to the migration overpopulation of workers and their families in areas where salary rates are highest — in the same way Metro Manila is experiencing now.

“This will create bigger problems because cities with highest wage rates will be inundated with population more than their design and capacity,” Tanjusay said in an interview.

“Also, with the prices of commodities and services almost the same among Classes A, B, C and D cities and towns, workers with the lowest rate will be unable to cope with the rising inflation,” he added.

With these wage orders, the RTWPB highly favored the employers sector and committed a mistake and created more problems than solutions for workers, Tanjusay added.

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