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A staff worker operates a hot-foil printing machine as he produces plate numbers at the Land Transportation Office (LTO) plate-making plant/assembly line in its headquarters in Quezon City. Jonathan Cellona, ABS-CBN News
MANILA – Metro Manila's wage board on Friday granted a P33 increase for minimum-wage earners, bumping up the regional rate for non-agricultural jobs to P570, the Department of Labor and Employment said Saturday.
In the NCR's agriculture sector, the daily rate would be P533.
The new wage hikes seek to "restore" the purchasing power of minimum wage earners amid the rising prices of basic goods and petroleum products, the labor department said, adding that some 1 million workers in private establishments are expected to be protected from "undue low pay."
Meanwhile, the DOLE said the Western Visayas wage board also granted a salary increase for workers in the non-agriculture, industrial and commercial establishments of P55 and P110, respectively, bringing the daily minimum wage for the sectors in the region to P450 and P420.
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The same wage board also granted a P95 increase for workers in the agriculture sector in Region 6, pushing their daily minimum wage to P410, according to DOLE.
The Western Visayas wage board echoed its NCR counterpart's basis for granting the hikes.
The DOLE said the fresh wage-hike orders would be submitted to the Commission for review and should take effect 15 days after publication in a newspaper of general circulation.
In separate statements, labor groups said the wage hikes would not be enough to get by.
Still, Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) chairperson Elmer Labog, who ran for a Senate seat but lost, said that while the pay increase was "insufficient," they are still considering it a victory.
Labog said all regional wage boards should do the same, urging the next Congress to prioritize legislating a P750 across-the-board minimum wage.
Sentro ng mga Nagkakaisa at Progresibong Manggagawa called the P33 wage increase in Metro Manila a "pittance and woefully inadequate."
"It is not even enough to allow workers to recover the lost value of their wages," it added.
The group also called for the abolition of regional wage boards and "go back to a national wage-setting mechanism."
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