CEBU CITY, Cebu, Philippines (PNA) – The Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivit Board (RTWPB) 7 has voted 3-2 in declaring that there are “supervening conditions” in Central Visayas that require an increase in wages in the region.

However, the Board still has to ask the legal department of the National Wages and Productivity Commission whether or not it can make the declaration when only three members instead of four, voted for it.

Lawyer Ernesto Carreon of the Associated Labor Union-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (ALU-TUCP) took his oath as one of the two representatives from the labor sector in the RTWPB 7 before the meeting.

The management and government sectors each had only one only one representative during the meeting. Said two sectors voted against declaring the existence of supervening conditions in the region, while the two labor representatives voted for it.

To break the tie, Department of Labor and Employment (Dole) 7 director Exequiel Sarcauga, who is acting chair of RTWPB 7, voted in favor of the labor sector.

The determination of supervening conditions, which is actually in reference with the extraordinary rise in the price of petroleum products and other basic goods and services, is a requirement before the RTWPB can entertain petitions for wage increase less than a year after the last wage increase.

“We have a technical issue to resolve the wage in the region by R100, while the Alliance of Progressive Labor (APL) is seeking R124-across-the-board wage increase,” Carreon said, adding that oil prices and the inflation rate in Cebu are higher than in Manila, where supervening conditions have already been declared.

The Board is set to meet again, hopefully to finalize a decision on the issue.