COTABATO CITY — The Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board (RTWPB) in the Bangsamoro region approved on Thursday a new salary scale for private sector workers in five southern provinces and the three cities under its jurisdiction.
Members of the RTWPB-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), led by its chairperson, Labor and Employment Minister Muslimin G. Sema, signed the new wage order during a symbolic rite at their office in Cotabato City, in the presence of reporters.
The RTWPB-BARMM had set a P411 mandatory daily wage for non-agricultural workers and P386 for agricultural workers in Cotabato City, the capital of the Bangsamoro region.
The board, composed representatives from the employer and labor sectors in the autonomous region, approved a P376 and P386 daily rate for agriculture and non-agricultural workers, respectively, in Maguindanao del Sur, Maguindanao del Norte, Lanao del Sur, Basilan and Tawi-Tawi provinces and in the cities of Lamitan and Marawi.
Under the new wage order, agricultural workers and non-agricultural workers in the Bangsamoro Special Geographic Area, comprising eight newly created towns in Cotabato province, will be entitled to P366 and P391 daily wages, respectively.
The rates were P50 higher than the daily wages for agricultural and non-agricultural workers stated in the wage order that officials of the board approved on Feb. 28, 2024.
“That is an across-the-board increase in the rate of wages we approved last year,” Mr. Sema said.
BARMM Chief Minister Abdulrauf A. Macacua watched Mr. Sema, the board’s vice chairman, Trade and Investment Minister Abuamri A. Taddik, the entrepreneur Haron U. Bandila, representing the employers’ sector in the autonomous region, and his counterparts from the labor sector, Norlyn A. Odin and Jonathan P. Acosta, sign the wage order in an event organized by officials of the regional labor ministry.
“These pay schemes were programmed by members of the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board in the autonomous region after extensive consultations with the labor sector and employers in the autonomous region,” Mr. Sema said.
Mr. Sema and Mr. Macacua, who is also figurehead of the 80 seat Bangsamoro parliament, separately told reporters that they are thankful to the sectors that helped the RTWPB-BARMM set a new daily pay matrix for this year for agricultural and non-agricultural workers in the autonomous region. — John Felix M. Unson