Philippines : NOCCI opposes across-the-board wage hike petition
The Negros Oriental Chamber of Commerce and Industry expressed its strong opposition to a labor petition for an across-the-board wage increase of P161 and P140, pending before the Central Visayas Regional
Wage decisions of the Central Visayas RTWPB still cover Negros Oriental, in the absence of a Negros Island Region RTWPB.
The petitions filed by the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines and Sentro/Alliance of Progressive Labor, Cebu Midtown Hotel Employees Union, Cebu Labor Coalition, Lonbisco Employees Organization, and NUWHRAINMontebello chapter were for P161 and P140 across-the-board wage increases for Central Visayas.
In its position paper, NOCCI is calling on the members of the RTWPB to reject outright the petition for wage hike as there is no single justifiable, reasonable, and objective argument behind it.
The petition for wage hike by TUCP and the other groups has no leg to stand on, given statistical facts and figures from the Philippines Statistics Authority and based on pure common sense and simple logic, the position paper said.
The NOCCI pointed out that in QuickStat on Negros Oriental's Consumer Price Index obtained from the website of PSA, the CPI for the province of Negros Oriental for the past 2-3 years has remained relatively unchanged.
The QuickStat also shows that the inflation rates, and the average gasoline and diesel pump prices for Negros Oriental have been declining for the past 2-3 years, there is no economic argument at all to increase wages, NOCCI said.
Power, water and transportation fares (land, sea and air travel) in Negros Oriental have remained the same for the past 2-3 years, from 2014-2016, accordingly, any increase in wages cannot be reasonably justified at all without any marked increase in public utilities rates, it added.
NOCCI said according to Forbes Magazine, Yahoo and the Overseas Retirement Index, Dumaguete City is currently the 5th best place to retire in the world, primarily due to its very low cost of living, as compared to the other countries and cities in the world and the Philippines.
Increasing wages now will not only be inflationary but might unnecessarily increase the cost of living in Dumaguete for fixed income local and foreign retirees, thereby negating Dumaguete's unique competitive advantage as a preferred retirement destination, it added.
Almost 99 percent, if not all of the businesses in Negros Oriental, are in the micro-small category, and do not have the capacity to pay an additional P161 or P140 per day wage increase to all its workers, the NOCCI also said.
Given that Negros Oriental is primarily an agricultural province, NOCCI's position has always been for the government to focus its efforts on inclusive growth through effective job creation, continuous skills training, and increased productivity in the agri-marine sector rather than annual wage hikes which are counter-productive and does not necessarily translate into increased labor productivity, it added.
Bacolod, which is a highly urbanized city, has a lower minimum wage rate at P298 per day than Dumaguete City which is not a HUC at P310 per day, the NOCCI also pointed out.
It said it believes this anomaly or distortion between the Bacolod and Dumaguete wage structure must be allowed to correct itself over the next 2-3 years prior to implementing another wage hike for Negros Oriental, it said.
The NOCCI opposition was signed by Du, Gregorio Uymatiao Jr. - vice president for finance, Tyrone RamasUypitching - treasurer, Florence Tangente - corporate secretary, trustees Banford Sy, Marciano Kho, Arthur Chua, Roy Cang and Edward Uy, and Robert Dy - chairman of the power and energy committee.*CPG