BARMM Workers to Receive P50 Daily Wage Increase This Year

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Workers in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) will receive a P50 daily wage increase, implemented in two tranches within the year, according to a new order approved and released on Wednesday, July 15. Members of the multi-sector Bangsamoro Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board (RTWPB) and their presiding chairperson, Regional Labor and Employment Minister Muslimin Sema, on Wednesday affixed their signatures to the new three-page wage order compelling employers in the autonomous region to grant a P25 daily pay increase, twice this year, or a total of P50, to workers in BARMM. The Ministry of Labor and Employment-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (MoLE-BARMM) covers Maguindanao del Norte, Maguindanao del Sur, Lanao del Sur, Basilan and Tawi-Tawi provinces and the cities of Lamitan, Marawi and Cotabato, where the regional government's capitol is located. The Wage Order BARMM 06, crafted on Wednesday, stated that all non-agriculture workers in the cities of Lamitan, Marawi and Cotabato, presently receiving P411 daily wage based on a previous wage order, shall receive, within this month, a P25 daily pay increase and subsequently, an additional P25 more starting December 1. They shall, thus, get P461 daily pay starting December onwards, as stipulated in the Wage Order BARMM 06. Agriculture and retail, or small and medium business establishment workers in the three BARMM cities receiving P386 daily pay shall also get such pay increases, for their daily wage to reach P436 by December. Non-agriculture and retail workers in BARMM’s five provinces receiving P386 daily from employers should have a daily wage of P436 starting December, stated the new wage order. The P376 daily pay of agriculture and retail workers in the five provinces shall increase to P426 by December this year, after the two P25 increases within a period of just over five months. The Wage Order BARMM 06 was signed by Sema, the workers’ representative Jonathan Acosta, Haron Bandila and Joseph Go, both representing the employers sector, and two other regional officials, Mohajirin Ali and Farserina Mohammad, director of BARMM’s planning and development agency and trade and investment minister, respectively. Sema, Acosta, Bandila and Go separately told reporters who covered Wednesday’s event at the MoLE-BARMM's office that the new wage order, stipulating a total of P50 increase in the daily pay of workers in the Bangsamoro region this year, was based on extensive dialogues with the labor and employer sectors that have representatives in the BTWPB. “This new wage order shall take effect within two weeks after publication by a newspaper of regional circulation,” Sema told reporters. Sema said they have personnel in MoLE-BARMM where workers can complain about non-compliance by their employers with the wage order that the BTWPB approved on Wednesday.