NEWS
DOLE enforces P6 daily wage increase

The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) is strictly monitoring the compliance of business establishments in Bicol to the Regional Wage Order No. 12, issued by the Bicol Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board (RTWPB) and subsequently approved by the Secretary of Labor and Employment, granting a P6 increase in the daily minimum wage of private sector workers throughout the region.

DOLE Bicol Regional Director Ernesto Bihis said the new wage order granting P6 increase for private sector workers in Bicol took effect December 1st this year and as such business establishments in the region are required to comply with the directive.

Bihis said workers in Bicol can look forward for their increase in salaries when they receive their pay envelopes starting December 15. “The P6 increase in daily wages will be uniform for all workers in the business establishments in Bicol.”

Thus workers in the cities of Legazpi, Naga, Iriga and Tabaco and in the municipalities of Pili in Camarines Sur and Daraga in Albay who are receiving P220 daily wage will now be receiving P226, while workers in the cities of Ligao, Sorsogon, and Masbate and in the other municipalities in the region who are receiving P208 daily wage will be receiving P214. Other workers receiving P 189 daily wage will now be receiving P195.

Mandated to effect the new P6 daily wage increase are those establishments which employ workers in the bracket of 15 or more workers paying P220 daily wage, 11 to 14 workers with P208 daily wage, and not more than 10 workers receiving P 189 daily wage based on the previous regional wage order.

Bihis pointed out that the new wage increase shall also be incorporated in the computation of the granting of the 13th month pay of the employees which the employers are required to grant before or on December 24.

On the complaints of workers that the P6 increase in daily wage will not suffice taking into consideration the spiral of price increases of goods and commodities aside from other mandatory expenses, Bihis said the RTWPB in coming out with the new wage rate conducted provincial consultations taking into consideration the parameters and economic indicators from the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).

Bihis said Bicol is number 7 among the country’s 16 regions that granted wage increases in the private sector even as the region is the less priority in the granting of such owing to the losses suffered by the business establishments from the devastation brought about by the various typhoons that hit the region in the latter part of last year. (RPEscalante, DOLE/NIMediavillo RnB)