BAGUIO CITY – The Cordillera office of the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board (RTWPB-CAR) revealed the labor and management sectors in the region seem to be satisfied with lthe newly implemented Wage Order No. CAR-DW-02 and Wage Order No. RB-CAR-18 which fixed the minimum wage for domestic and minimum wage earners, respectively.
Augusto Aquillo, RTWPB board secretary, said based on the wage orientation sessions which the board conducted regionwide last week, there were no violent reactions from the representatives of the concerned sectors who attended the activities in the different capital towns of the six provinces.
Wage Order No. CAR-DW-02 fixes the minimum monthly wages for domestic workers at P3,000 in cities and first-class municipalities and P2,500 for other areas in the region while Wage Order No. CAR-RB-18 fixed the daily minimum wage of workers in various sectors in the region.
Aquillo pointed out, generally, there are always recorded violations by employers during the first two months of implementation of the wage orders but the reported violations are usually corrected in the course of time unlike in other regions where there are employers who are allegedly repeated violators of wage orders being implemented in their areas of jurisdiction.
“We are elated because we were not able to record any violent reaction from either labor or management in the implementation of the new wage orders. WE believe that both sectors were able to understand how the wage increase will be implemented for the benefit of a productive workforce,” Aquillo stressed.
The RTWPB-CAR official explained the regionwide wage orientation sessions were aimed at orienting the concerned sectors on the correct application of the new wage orders to prevent violations once the monitoring of establishments will be done by labor inspectors.
Aquillo said that there had been observed significant improvement in the labor situation during the wage orientation last week compared to the situation at the start of the orientations in the region, thus, he is optimistic that there will be no serious problems that will be encountered by the agency in the coming months.
He reminded both labor and management sectors to immediately seek the proper advice from the nearest provincial labor and employment offices on how to apply the provisions of the new wage order to prevent the employers from being recorded having violated the said order.
Aquillo disclosed the next step for the RTWPB-CAR is to closely monitor the compliance of establishments to the provisions of the new wage order that is why employers must already apply the new rates on their workers as the wage order already took effect last June 5, 2017.
He added labor and employment officials around the region are ready to extend assistance to both the labor and management sectors regarding the application of the new wage order.
By HENT