BACOLOD City – Employers of sugar industry enterprises in Western Visayas should “faithfully” pay their workers an extra P5 every day beginning Jan. 17, according to labor representative to the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board (RTWPB) Wennie Sancho.
The additional P5 is for the daily cost of living allowance (COLA) of the employees, he added.
“They have to faithfully pay [their employees]. It’s just a small amount,” Sancho said on Thursday after an RTWPB meeting in Iloilo City.
He stressed that the COLA would help minimum wage earners in Region 6 cope with the rising cost of petroleum products, which leads to the price increase of basic goods.
“It (P5 COLA) is one of the new provisions of the latest wage order,” Sancho added.
Wage Order No. 24 – which the RTWPB approved in June last year – provides that employers should pay for the COLA six months after the wage increase becomes effective on July 16, 2018.
Sancho said the Department of Labor and Employment Region 6 led by Director Cyril Ticao is expected to issue an advisory on the effectivity of the P5 COLA./PN
