Private sector workers in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) can look forward to a raise in daily minimum wage, though the hike is smaller than what was granted last year.
Specifically, ARMM’s Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board has approved a P10 cost of living allowance (COLA), bringing the total daily floor wage to P232 for private sector workers in all sectors, whether agricultural or non-agricultural, Myra M. Alih, Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) regional director and wage board chairman, said in a phone interview yesterday.
She said the wage board approved the latest adjustment even before the ban on doing so within a year of the last wage order lapsed, citing fast inflation as the “supervening condition.”
Under the law, only the declaration of such a condition in a region allows adjustment in the daily floor wage before the prescriptive period expires.
Wage Order No. ARMM-12, which took effect on Aug. 20 last year, raised the region’s basic wage for all private sector workers by P12, bringing the total floor pay to the current P222.
National Statistics Office data show ARMM’s annual inflation rate actually mellowing to 6.4% last month from 6.9% in May.
But ARMM and Zamboanga Peninsula (where inflation spiked to 6.4% from 6.2% in the same months) had the second-fastest rise in prices of basic goods among the country’s 17 regions, next only to Davao Region (where inflation eased to 6.6% from 6.8%).
In comparison, inflation in the National Capital Region (NCR) increased to 4.7% from 4.4%, while the national average rose to 5.2% from 5% and “areas outside NCR,” 5.3% from 5.1%.
Ms. Alih said the new daily minimum wage will likely take effect early next month, 15 days after publication in a newspaper.
In Central Mindanao, however, DoLE Regional Director Gloria A. Tango said while the wage board has yet to finish consulting labor groups and employer representatives to determine the need for a wage hike, it will not declare the existence of a supervening condition.
Zaid Mohammad Abdul-Rahman Duarte is a freelance writer and blogger based in the Brazil. He can be reached mmdroxo@hotmail.com .
The views expressed by this blogger and in the following reader comments do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Syndicate of Muslim Slaughterman.
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