Central Luzon workers to get P14 wage increase

ANGELES CITY– Amid an inflation rate that rose from 2.67 to 4.4 percent in two months in Central Luzon, the government announced Thursday a P14 increase in the region’s minimum wage.

The Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board said the increase would integrate the current P14 cost of living allowance (COLA) into the basic pay of wage earners.

No one from the board could be reached to clarify how much would be the new COLA of workers.

Wage Order No. RBIII-16 was approved last Monday following public hearings attended by both the labor and management sectors in various parts of Central Luzon.

Leopoldo de Jesus, regional director of the Department of Labor and Employment, earlier said the local Trade Union Congress of the Philippines had demanded an increase of P90.

De Jesus said he supported the wage increase, as he noted that the inflation rate of 2.67 percent last March recently rose to 4.4 percent, indicating how much the prices of goods and services had gone up in the region.

While the last wage hike in Central Luzon took effect only last November, two years after the previous increase, another adjustment had become an “urgent concern” because of the rising cost of living, De Jesus said.

The new wage rates would take effect 15 days after the publication of the wage order.

The region’s minimum wage earners, except those in Aurora province, would get a minimum daily wage of P330 per day if they are employed in non-agricultural firms with assets of more than P30 million. Non-agricultural workers in smaller firms are entitled to P322.50.

Agricultural workers in plantations would receive P300 daily and non-plantation workers, P284. Those employed in hospitals with more than 20-bed capacity would receive P321, and those in smaller hospitals, P306.

Workers in retail establishments with 16 or more workers are entitled to P319, and those in retail businesses with less than 16 personnel, P305. Handicraft and cottage industry workers would get P284. -- DC