CEBU, Philippines - A labor partylist group in Central Visayas has filed a petition to the regional wage board for a minimum wage increase.

Trade Union Congress in the Philippines (TUCP) partylist filed their petition for an across-the-board P100 wage increase Monday at the Central Visayas office of the Regional Tripartite Wage and Productivity Board (RTWPB).

TUCP representative Raymond Mendoza said there is an urgent need for employees in the private sector employees to get a higher minimum wage with the high prices of goods and commodities.

Mendoza said that their demand is based on data from the National Economic and Development Authority.

The group gave details on their computation for the P100 wage hike.

TUCP said P19 comes from 7% increase in prices between June 2008 and January 2010. P24 from the projected 9% rise in Consumer Price Index (CPI) between February to December 2010. They are also asking P21 for the 21 years since 1989 when there were no increase in real wages. P36 is for partial adjustment towards equalizing the minimum wage level with CALABARZON (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, and Quezon), which has P320 as the minimum daily salary for private sector employees.

RTWPB Region 7 had granted the labor group’s wage increase petition in May 2008. The group initially asked for a P150 across-the-board wage increase but only P17 was approved which made the minimum wage now at P267.

Mendoza said, however, that almost 2 years have passed and the meager increase has been overtaken by the spiraling increases in prices of petroleum products, transport fares and in basic goods and services.

Mendoza said that they are not filing the petition to just make a noise for the 2010 elections where TUCP is participating in the partylist system of elections.

The TUCP representative said that every year, they file a petition for wage increase. He admitted, however, that in 2009, they refrained from doing so because they understood that the country is still in a difficult situation due to the global economic crisis.

He said, however, that the country is already recovering from the crisis and it is only right for the salaries of the workers to be raised to cope up.

TUCP is expecting that the board will act on their petition immediately and will be able to give their decision before May 1 Labor Day as a gift to the workers. Mendoza said he is optimistic that the board this time will side with the workers by granting a just wage increase.

Department of Labor and Employment regional director and RTWPB chairperson Elias Cayanong, meanwhile, said that the board will consolidate the petition filed by TUCP to the petition filed by the Cebu Labor Coalition (CELAC) December last year which seeks for a P128.60 minimum wage increase. He said that this way, they can act on it faster because they will no longer go through another series of consultation.

He also said that the private sector employers have asked the board to consult them before they will address the petitions filed. Cayanong said that after the global economic crisis not all industries have recovered and are doing well.

Cayanong said that they have started their consultation on the wage increase petition filed by CELAC. He said that they were done consulting representatives from the electronics sector, the academe, and the furniture industry. According to Cayanong, the 3 sectors have shown negative performances after the recession hit. He said that the companies from these sectors are not doing well yet and orders from abroad are still not coming in.

Cayanong, however, said that there are sectors which are performing positively like tourism and call centers.

Cayanong said that the board will still evaluate the petition with the results from the consultations they have conducted. He said that the board might put wage increase as part of their agenda in their regular meeting on March 11.