Western Visayas workers get P17-P20 wage increase
Director Carlos Boteros
The Regional Tripartite Wages and and Productivity Board in Western Visayas has approved a P17 to P20 increase in the daily minimum wage in the region.
Department of Labor and Employment Regional Director Carlos Boteros said that Wage Order No. 14, raises by P20 the daily wage level in the industrial/sugar mills sector and by P17-P19 those in the commercial and other agricultural sectors.
The new wage increase will raise the daily minimum wage in the region from P205 to P235.
The wage order shall take effect 15 days after its publication in a newspaper of regional circulation, Boteros added.
He said the new wage order would apply to all minimum wage earners in Western Visayas except household or domestic workers and persons in the personal service of another, including family drivers and workers of registered Barangay Micro-Business Enterprises with Certificates of Authority.
The minimum wage rates prescribed under Wage Order No. 14 will be for the normal working hours that should not exceed eight hours a day, he added.
Distressed establishments and new business enterprises can apply for exemption from the new wage order for one year, Boteros said.
The new wage hike, which was way below the P75 a day demanded by sugar industry workers and other labor groups in the region, was reached following a series of public hearings held in various parts of the region over the last month.
Boteros said that a consensus to grant a P17-P20 daily wage increase was reached by members of the board Friday to provide the workers and their families with immediate relief, in addition to the efforts of the government to hold down prices of basic goods and services to cushion the impact of recent adjustments in the value of the peso and prices of petroleum products.
Under the new order, workers in the sugar industry working in sugar mills will be getting P235 a day.
For sugar plantations, workers for plantations with capitalization of more than P3 million will receive P203 a day; those with capitalization of not more than P3 million--P185; and for non-plantation workers--P180.
Wages for non-agricultural workers in industrial or commercial establishments with capitalization of more than P3 million--P222.
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