ZAMBOANGA CITY (PIA) – The National Wage and Productivity Council (NWPC) affirmed Wage Order No. 16 of the Regional Wage Board 9 for the workers in Zamboanga Peninsula after the technical review in Manila.

Board Secretary Joel Ijirani, in a phone interview, disclosed the good news.

“This is good news for our workers. NWPC, in principle, has affirmed Wage Order No.16, increasing our workers’ pay to P255.00,” Ijirani said.

According to Ijirani, he already instructed his staff here to immediately cause the publication of the affirmation to be followed by the implementation of the salary increase in the region.

“We hope that the publication will appear in our local papers as early as tomorrow. 15 days after its publication, we will immediately implement the increase,” he added.

He also said that the implementing rules of the wage adjustment will be forwarded to the Labor chief anytime soon for approval and execution of the adjustment.

Ijirani pointed that the adjustment will take effect after 15 days of publication but there may be some establishment who will still wait for the implementing rules and guidelines before they will act on the adjustment.