Judge halts salary hike for minimum wage earners in Bohol

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, Philippines — A trial court judge has stopped the implementation of the salary adjustments for minimum wage earners in Bohol province which was supposed to take effect on Sunday.

Judge Jorge Cabalit of the Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 48 in Bohol ordered the Regional Tripartite Wage and Productivity Board in Central Visayas and the Department of Labor and Employment to hold the implementation of Wage Order No. ROVII-22.

“The parties are directed to maintain the status quo at the time of the filing of this case,” he said in an order issued last Friday, Jan. 3.

A hearing is set for Jan. 8 to determine whether or not the court will issue a writ of preliminary injunction.

Two business groups — Bohol Chamber of Commerce and Industry Inc. and the Bohol Association of Hotels, Resorts and Restaurants Inc. (BAHHR) — filed a petition before the RTC in Bohol questioning the reclassification of Tagbilaran City under Class B, which resulted in the imposition of a higher wage hike of P28 per day as compared to other cities, including Class A Cebu City, which will have a pay increase of P18 per day.

According to the petitioners’ lead counsel, lawyer Lord “Popot” Marapao IV, the petition was filed after the issuance and publication of the new wage order reclassifying Tagbilaran City under Class B from C.

He stressed that the petitioners were not against the wage increase as they were objecting only to the reclassification of Tagbilaran City.

“The reclassification of Tagbilaran City from Class C to becoming Class B is rather new to the Boholanos, which puzzled the Boholano business community and confuses even the City Government of Tagbilaran, Bohol, as they themselves have no knowledge of such change of category,” the petition said.

Marapao emphasized that there was a public hearing, but there was no mention of reclassification.

“This reclassification was never discussed or raised during the public hearing held last October 11, 2019,” said Marapao.

“Moreover, the standards or criteria for minimum wage fixing under Republic Act No. 6727 otherwise known as the Wage Rationalization Act should have been followed and some of these factors are cost of living, fair return of capital invested and capacity to pay of employers, wage adjustment vis-a-vis the consumer price index, etc,” he added.

According to the petitioners, the new wage order of P28 for Tagbilaran City and Dumaguete City and P18 for Cebu proved that “the board reviewing the salaries in Region 7, do not know by heart, the economic landscape and activities in the cities and municipalities in this region.”

The petitioners said that a P28 salary increase resulting in a P366 minimum wage in Tagbilaran City would deter the growth of micro enterprises, and would cause downsizing on the side of the large ones, and would definitely result to the surging of unemployment, displacement of workers in the province and in Central Visayas (Region 7).

Under Wage Order No. ROVII-22, workers in the non-agricultural sector in Class A cities and municipalities will now be paid P404 daily minimum wage after getting an increase of P18.

Workers in the agriculture sector in these areas will get an increase of P26. Their minimum wage would be rise from P368 to P394.

Those employed by establishments with less than 10 workers will also get P394 after an increase of P18.

Tagbilaran is in Class B in Bohol.

In Class B cities and towns, minimum wage earners in the non-agriculture sector and establishments with less than 10 workers will get an adjustment of P18 to P28 while workers in the agriculture sector will receive P33 to 48 increase.

/atm