BAGUIO CITY – The Cordillera office of the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board (RTWPB-CAR) disclosed based on a recent survey, almost all employers regionwide are complying with the Two Tiered Wage System (TTWS) with the grant of productivity performance pay for their performing employees but only 111 establishment operators were able to register their compliance to the new wage system with the Board.
August Aquillo, RTWPB board secretary, explained the grant of productivity performance pay to performing employees of businesses is voluntary on the part of their employers considering that the role of the wage board is to fix the minimum standards of wages supposed to be granted to the workers in a certain region.
“We call on our employers to register their productivity performance agreements with their workers with the Board so that it will serve as a basis for our future actions and for us to be able to come out with actual figures relative to the compliance of employers to the new wage system,”Aquillo stressed.
He said it will be up to the employers and their workers to decide on how the productivity performance pay will be implemented depending on the established levels that were agreed upon.
Under the new wage system, the two components are the implementation of the basic pay to be determined by the concerned RTWPB and the second component is the implementation of the productivity-based performance pay as per agreement of the employers and the employees in a certain company.
According to him, the RTWPB-CAR conducted a survey on the compliance of the employers to the productivity-based performance pay for their workers and it was discovered that almost all of employers in the region are now adhering to the TTWS.
However, Aquillo said that only 111 businesses were able to register their agreements on how to implement the productivity-based pay for their workers prompting the RTWPB-CAR to call on concerned employers regionwide to register their respective agreements with their workers on the grant of their productivity-based pay.
He pointed out it would be an added boost on the compliance of employers to issuances of the wage board once they are able to register their respective productivity performance pay agreements with their employees to the Board for future references.
Aquillo appealed to all employers in the different parts of the region to voluntarily register their productivity-based performance agreements with their employees the soonest in order to actually monitor the actual compliance of employers to the issuances of the wage board.
Earlier, the RTWPB-CAR approved the implementation of a wage adjustment on the basic pay of daily minimum wage earners in the different parts of the region, increasing the daily compensation of workers from P255 to P285 depending on which sector the employees belong.
Aquillo cited the implementation of the adjustment in basic pay of the workers comes in two tranches, the first tranche will be effective on June 29, 2015 while the second tranche specifically for the industry sector in the Baguio-La Trinidad-Itogon-Sablan-Tuba (BLIST) area will take effect on January 1, 2016.
He also appealed to all employers regionwide to strictly adhere to the implementation of the new wage order to avoid being meted the necessary penalties. By Dexter A. See
