NO COMPLAINTS. The Employers' Confederations of the Philippines (ECOP) on Friday (June 30, 2023) said it is satisfied with the latest wage order. ECOP president Sergio Ortiz-Luis, Jr. is seen here accepting an award from vice president George Barcelon (middle) and former president Ed Lacson during ECOP's 43rd National Conference last Aug. 24, 2022. (PNA photo by Joey O. Razon)
MANILA – The Employers’ Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP) on Friday expressed relative satisfaction over the processes that led to the setting of a PHP40 per day wage hike for private sector workers in the National Capital Region (NCR).
In an interview, ECOP president Sergio Ortiz-Luis, Jr. said that while any upward wage adjustment puts unwanted additional burden on employers, the latest wage order was reached after a thorough review of prevailing economic conditions, as mandated by the country’s labor laws.
“We understand how the NCR wage board arrived at that figure, (PHP40/day) our representatives saw how the computation was done. Both employer and labor representatives were there (at the wage hearings). It was a scientific way of computing the erosion of purchasing power,” he noted.
The business leader explained that initial computations actually showed that the equivalent of PHP30 per day was shed from workers’ salaries since the last wage hike was implemented on June 4, 2022.
However, he said, if the latest inflation figures are factored in, it would appear that the actual erosion in workers’ pay is closer to PHP37 per day.
“I guess it was just rounded off to PHP40. We have no complaints because the right process was observed. The figures being sought by some labor groups were simply too high, and they wanted a legislated wage hike. This is not the proper way (of wage setting) because it gets muddled with politics,” he added.
Ortiz-Luis said that while wage setting as done by Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Boards (RTWPBs) is “not perfect,” it uses a formula that can be defended and scrutinized.
However, he admitted that some unnamed ECOP members have expressed fears over the impending impact the latest wage hike will bring on their struggling companies.
“One member called me up earlier, and said he is currently employing over 2,000 workers. He asked me if I knew how much PHP40 per day would translate in a year? He said that his company is simply not making that much,” ECOP’s president disclosed.
Ortiz-Luis maintained that the ideal way of determining wage adjustments remains to be through collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) between labor and employer. (PNA)
