THE wage petitions filed before the regional wage board in the National Capital Region (NCR) are unlikely to prosper due to the existing ban on the grant of another wage hike in the same year unless authorities validate a so-called supervening condition.
Executive Director Maria Criselda R. Sy of the National Wages Productivity Commission (NWPC) said the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board-NCR (RTWPB-NCR) has yet to report of any supervening condition.
“The NCR [Wage] Board, though, received last Friday a petition for increase in NCR from three labor groups,” Sy told the BusinessMirror in an SMS.
Last week, the Kilos Na Manggagawa, Metal Workers’ Alliance of the Philippines (MWAP) and the BPO Industry Employees Network (BIEN) petitioned for a P213 minimum-wage hike in NCR.
The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) said it will be filing on Monday a petition for a P710 wage hike in NCR.
TUCP or its affiliate groups are the ones which traditionally file wage petitions for NCR before every Labor Day.
The said labor groups said the new round of wage petitionswill allow workers to cope with the rising cost of living in the region.
“The current P537 wage for minimum-wage earners in Metro Manila is highly insufficient in the light of rising costs of food and services caused by taxes and inadequate government services and social protection assistance to poor Filipinos,” TUCP said.
Under wage rules, the wage boards are not allowed to entertain wage-hike petitions within 12 months from the effectivity of their previous wage order unless they declare a supervening event.
Supervening conditions pertain to any extraordinary increase in prices of petroleum products and basic goods/services for a specific period.
The last wage order issued by the RTWPB-NCR took effect in November 2018, raising the prevailing minimum-wage rate in the region by P25.
But even with the prevailing wage petition ban, the RTWPB-NCR is still required to accept and decide on all wage petitions it will receive as part of its administrative functions.