MANILA, Philippines — AT least 10 business groups are opposed to the proposed P200 legislated wage increase approved by the House of Representatives on third and final reading, a counterpart measure to the P100 wage increase approved by the Senate last year.
These are the Federation of Filipino-Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Inc. (FFCCCII), Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP), Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI), Philippine Exporters Confederation (PEC), Philippine Hotel Owners Association (PHOA), Philippine Association of Legitimate Service Contractors (PLSC), Philippine Retailers Association (PRA), Philippine Constructors Association (PCA), People Management Association of the Philippines (PMAP), and the Semiconductor and Electronics Industries in the Philippines (SEIP).
The 10 business groups signed a joint letter sent to the House labor committee, expressing their “strong opposition,” to the P200 across-the-board legislated wage increase.
Voicing the sentiment of other business groups, FFCCCII President Cecilio Pedro said Thursday that the matter of wage increase was better left to the regional wage board rather than Congress.
Pedro pointed out that focus should be on job generation, saying that “more jobs will mean higher salaries because of the limited supply of workers.
ECOP President Sergio Ortiz-Luis Jr maintained that a legislated wage increase was not only inflationary but would not also benefit the greater majority of the work force as those in the informal sector didn’t have a fixed wage and were not covered by wage increases.
Ortiz-Luis expressed concern on the impact of the increase to informal sector workers which, he said, comprised 84 percent of the country’s 50 million workforce.
“The wage increase is only for formal sector workers which is only 16 percent of the [estimated] 50 million workers. The remaining 84 percent are informal workers like the fisherfolks, tricycle drivers, vendors and jeepney drivers, [among others], who have no employers and regular salaries,” he added.
As far as the ECOP group is concerned, Luis-Ortiz said that their members were middle and big companies which, by economic standards, would have little problems in implementing a wage hike and small industries or those belonging to the Medium, Small and Micro Enterprises (MSMEs) would definitely have a hard time complying.
“They (MSMEs) have employees too. They even have a hard-time complying with the 13th month pay and the weekly or monthly salaries of their employees,” he pointed out, adding that some of them were only starting to recover from the economic impact of the health pandemic, while many others have yet to reopen their businesses.
The Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (The Chamber), the country’s oldest business group, said that the proposed legislated across-the-board increase was “unfair” because it would be an added burden to the business sector.
Jose Luis Yulo of The Chamber said that the proposal, if enacted into law, would be an added burden to the business sector.
Yulo also maintained that it should be the Regional Tripartite Wage and ProductiBoard(RTWPBs) that should tackle the issue because they were vested with the authority to determine what should be the minimum wage in a particular region.
“Our biggest challenge is making our laws work. We have regional wage boards, they should do their jobs. Let us not make a law that would supplant the job of the wage boards,” he added.
Labor Secretary Bienvenido Laguesma said that he has been in the labor department since 1989, and as far as he could remember, the legislated wage hike law had little or minimal effects on inflation and business but pointed out that with the changing times, a lot of factors have to be considered in setting a new minimum wage increase.
“We are globalized at present. Competition is stiff with our Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) neighbors, and this is one of the primary considerations that we should look into,” the labor chief further said.
As far as the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) is concerned, Laguesma said that the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Boards (RTWPBs) have been doing a great job in determining the right wage increase in their respective regions, taking into consideration the concerns of both labor and business.
But Laguesma added that the DOLE was ready to abide by and implement a legislated wage increase if enacted into law.
