CEBU CITY, Philippines – As Labor Day fast approaches, the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) in Central Visayas is hoping that the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board (RTWPB) will be able to come up with positive news for the labor sector on May 1.

Acting DoLE 7 Director Exequil Sarcauga said the RTWPB, which he chairs, will convene this week to discuss the possibility of instituting a wage increase for workers in the private sector, especially in the entire Central Visayas area.

“We hope the Board will have some good news to tell workers on Labor Day,” Sarcauga said.

He said it is important to consider the present economic situation in Central Visayas as this would be the only basis for any wage increase approval since the region still faces a one-year reglamentary period set by the Labor Code.

The country's biggest labor group – Associated Labor Unions-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (ALU-TUCP) - is seeking a P100 across-the-board wage increase for private-sector workers in Central Visayas.

Said labor group insists that there is a need to adjust wages if workers are to cope with rising costs of fuel, fare and basic commodities.

“The P100 daily increase is essential so workers can cope with increasing prices of commodities and cost of living, and if they are to meet their families’ basic needs even if only partially, and if the country is to give meaning and substance to the policy of equitable distribution of income and wealth,” the ALU-TUCP underlined in its wage-increase petition.

Said five-page petition, signed by ALU-TUCP National President Democrito Mendoza, was filed at the RTWPB 7 last week.

To recall, the board approved an increase in wages last September 1, 2010. Under the Labor Code, no wage increase can be implemented within a year after one has been granted unless a “supervening condition” justifies the granting within said one-year period.

Sarcuaga said DoLE in the National Capital Region and Region 2 has received petitions for wage increase as of Friday, last week.