Mindanaotoday.com | Oro biz group bids P35 daily pay hike
By Uriel Quilinguing
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – The biggest organization of business and industry owners in Cagayan de Oro offered on Wednesday, May 11, a P35 increase on daily minimum wage.
This, after the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board received a petition on March 29 for a P413 adjustment, thus bringing the minimum pay per day to P778 from P365.
“We are not against daily wage increase,” said Raymundo Talimio, Cagayan de Oro Chamber of Commerce and Industry president, who echoed the voice of close to 500 member-establishments.
Talimio, a certified public accountant, said any mandated increase in pay will be “injurious” to the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and may result to retrenchments and layoffs.
Micro enterprises employ fewer than 10 workers, small enterprises with 10 to 49, and medium with 50 to 249. Those with 250 workers or more are large enterprises.
He said business owners, particularly the MSMEs, would pass on any additional cost of labor to the consumers, thus products and services would be costlier.
Increase in wages, he said, would result to higher premiums for social security, health coverage, housing, and costs on overtime, night differentials, 13th month and bonuses, and even retirement pay.
Others, he said, may “go underground” to avoid being subjected to labor laws.
Talimio said high cost of labor may also drive away investors and hold business expansion plans.
But lawyer Proculo Sarmen, Associated Labor Union Regional Vice President for Northern Mindanao, who presented the TUCP petition, said living wages would result to high productivity and prevent labor unrest. ALU is affiliated with the TUCP as its umbrella national organization.
Sarmen said those in the agriculture sector, particularly those in banana plantations, are getting below the mandated minimum daily wage, and further labelled the current daily pay as “slave wages.”
He said their petition, once granted would benefit mostly the non-unionized workers and those not covered with collective bargaining agreements.
“How can a worker live with P13.36-per-meal-per-person budget?” asked the former National Labor Relations Commissioner, suggesting to the RTWPB-10 members the amount should be raised to P61.17 per meal per person.
Meanwhile, the Cagayan de Oro Hotel and Restaurant Association, unlike the Oro Chamber, suggested for P15 which it calls as “minimum” wage adjustment, claiming they were most affected by the pandemic.
“We are still under Alert Level 1 and we resumed business operations, on limited capacities, only six months ago,” said a spokesperson, on behalf of COHARA head Eduardo Pelaez.
Michael Amores, who heads the Ozamiz Chamber of Commerce and Industry Foundation, Inc., said they are for P12-per-day adjustment.
Amores also said Misamis Occidental with Oroquieta, Ozamiz, and Tangub cities should be treated separately because they only have two industries, both coco oil mills.
The RTWPB-10 is chaired by the regional director of the Department of Labor-10, co-chaired by heads of the National Economic and Development Authority-10 and the Department of Trade and Industry-10.
Two members each from management and labor sectors sit in the regional wage board and would participate in the deliberations and in the issuance of wage orders.
Proposed wage adjustment and position papers on domestic household workers were not discussed in the public hearing – last and final phase of the wage-fixing process, as mandated under Republic Act No. 6727 of 1989.