CEBU CITY, Cebu, Philippines — The Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board (RTWPB) in Central Visayas will hold its final meeting Friday to discuss a possible wage increase for private sector workers in the entire region.

RTWPB 7 officials, however, refused to say whether or not a wage increase is needed based on data presented by other government agencies during a recent meeting. Comprehensive information is expected to be presented Friday for the Board’s perusal before it can come up with a decision, a RTWPB source said.

The Board failed to reach a decision during its last meeting due to the existence of a “supervening” condition in the region that would warrant a wage increase as it is still waiting for updated data on the living condition of the people in the region from the National Statistics Office (NSO)

The source, however, said that should the Board declare the existence of a “supervening” condition, it will immediately discuss the wage increase petitions filed by labor groups.

Under the Labor Code, no new wage hike can be implemented within a one-year reglementary period unless there are “supervening” factors that would justify approving the petition. The Board approved a wage hike last September, 2010. The Labor Code indicates that approval of another wage hike should be done a year after the previous wage increase.

Currently, the minimum wage for Central Visayas is P285 for Class A towns, P265 for Class B towns, P255 for Class C towns and P240 for Class D towns. Central Visayas has between 85,000 to 100,000 workers.

The Associated Labor Union– Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (ALU-TUCP) asked last April for a P100 across-the-board increase in Central Visayas.

But Wenceslao Badayos, Cebu chairman of the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU), said that a P100 wage increase is not enough. He said that Cebuano workers need a P125 increase in their daily wage to cope with the increasing prices of basic commodities.

Earlier, businessman Robert Go, director of the Philippine Retailers Association-Cebu, commented that an across-the-board wage increase is “never a good idea because it destroys the economy,” adding that increase wage will just result to depletion of jobs.