CEBU CITY, Cebu, Philippines – The Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board (RTWPB) in Pagian 7 approved last Wednesday, August 31, a uniform P20-increase in daily minimum wage of Central Visayas workers even as labor groups say the amount is way lower than the P100 hike in such wages they have earlier proposed.

The increase takes effect 15 days after publication of the order in all four provinces in the region.

RTWPB Chairman Exequiel Sarcauga, who is also the acting regional director of the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE), said, in effect, the amount will increase the minimum wage of workers in Central Visayas to P305 from the current P285.

The Association Labor Union-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (ALU-TUCP) had earlier asked for a P100 across-the-board daily minimum wage hike for workers in the region while the Trade Union of the Philippines and Allied Services asked for a P120 across-the-board daily wage increase.

Predictably, ALU-TUCP legal chief Ernesto Carreon, one of the labor representatives in the RTWPB, expressed disappointment over what he called a “minimal” salary hike.

“It’s very small,” he said, adding that he, along with the TUCP and Allied Services’ Marianito Ventura who likewise represent the labor sector in the RTWPB, had exerted efforts hoping that either of their organization’s proposed amounts would be granted. “But we were out-voted,” he said.

The RTWPB is comprised of two labor representatives; two representing management, lawyer Hidelito Pascual and businessman Charles Streegan; and Sarcauga of the Department of Labor and Employment, Acting regional director Efren Carreon of the National Economic Development Authority and regional director Asteria Caberte of the Department of Trade and Industry, representing government.

Sarcauga said there were new indicators that had to be considered in the Board’s deliberations on the wage hike, that is, gross regional domestic product, unemployment rate, and employment rate, among others. He said there was apprehension that not a few companies would be closed if their own concerns were not considered.