The regional wage board has given due course to the petitions for increases in daily pay of minimum wage workers in the National Capital Region, the labor department announced on Tuesday.

DOLE-National Capital Region (DOLE-NCR) Regional Director Sarah Buena Mirasol said the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board has resolved to consolidate three wage hike petitions seeking between P213 to P250 increase in the daily minimum wage for Metro Manila workers. Mirasol also chairs the wage board.

A separate petition for an across-the-board wage adjustment of P470 a day filed last March 14 by the Trade Union Congress of Philippines was not acted upon by the board, Mirasol said.

“An across the board increase is not within the jurisdiction of the (wage board) nor authorized by R.A. 6727, its mandate being limited only to minimum wage fixing and determination in the Region,” read the board resolution dated March 22. Republic Act 6727 is the law that created the wage boards to fix minimum wages on a regional level.

But Mirasol added that the board received a fresh petition from the TUCP for the same amount of adjustment but no longer across the board. She said the petition may be considered during the board’s next meeting.

Mirasol said the wage board consolidated three other wage hike petitions for the conduct of joint proceedings to expedite the process of wage hike determination.

“The board received three wage hike petitions and upon review, we have issued a resolution to consolidate all petitions and proceed to public hearings. We gave all the petitions due course,” Mirasol said.

One of the petitions was filed by the Unity for Wage Increase Now (UWIN) on November 25, 2019 with a proposed amount of P213 of increase, one from Metro East Labor Federation (MELF) on March 4, 2022 with the same amount of wage hike, and one from the Solidarity of Unions in the Philippines for Empowerment and Reforms (SUPER) on March 4, 2022 with a proposed increase ranging from P213 ? P250.

“The petition filed on 2019 was already given due course. We have conducted consultations however, we were prevented to pursue on the conduct of public hearings because of the pandemic,” she said.

The DOLE NCR chief also said “We now have a schedule for consultation with the labor sector on April 8, the second one will be on April 19 for the employers group, and after that we will issue a notice of public hearing to invite not only the labor, and employers sectors but also other organizations.”

Following the instructions of Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III, Mirasol said the board will also take consideration balancing the interest of the workers and the employers amid the current crisis in Ukraine and the rising prices of oil and other prime commodities. DOLE Information and Publication Service