SECTORAL representatives to the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board (RTWPB), including four in Western Visayas, were ordered to resign by the National Wages and Productivity Commission (NWPC).
The order is in line with the mandate of President Rodrigo Duterte to thousands of presidential appointees to vacate their posts.
In a memorandum dated August 25, a copy of which was obtained by Sun.Star Bacolod, NWPC said it was verbally informed by the Office of the Executive Secretary to advise all its sectoral representatives as well as those of RTWPBs to tender their unqualified courtesy resignations within seven days upon the issuance of the memorandum circular on August 22.
Memorandum Circular No. 4, which mandates the resignation of presidential appointees, is in view of the president’s desire to rid the bureaucracy of corruption, and to give him a free hand in achieving the said objective.
NWPC further said the resignation should be addressed to the Office of the President through the Department of Labor and Employment (Dole).
Wennie Sancho, one of the two labor representatives to the RTWPB, told Sun.Star Bacolod on Monday that he received the memorandum last Saturday from NWPC through Salome Siaton, officer-in-charge regional director of Dole-Western Visayas, who also chairs the RTWPB.
Sancho is the secretary general of the Negros-based General Alliance of Workers Association (Gawa).
Along with him in the labor sector also ordered to resign is Negrense Hernane Braza of the National Congress of Unions in the Sugar Industry of the Philippines (Nacusip).
The two other representatives to the RTWPB from the management sector are Luis Estrella from the province of Aklan, and John Peter Millan, board president of Northern Negros Electric Cooperative (Noneco).
For his part, Sancho said he will comply with the order by submitting his resignation today.
“Until any action on their courtesy resignation is taken by the President, appointive officials shall continue to report for work and perform their normal duties and responsibilities,” the order stated.
Sancho, however, raised concerns on the effect of their resignation to the ongoing wage consultation for workers in Western Visayas.
“We already conducted consultations in Iloilo, Aklan and Capiz and the final deliberation is set on September 20. What will happen now to these wage hike proposals, will it be held in abeyance, suspended or discarded,” he pointed out.
The labor group leader further said the order is counterproductive and anti-labor.
“It is a double whammy, since Negros Island Region was excluded from RTWPB 6 and 7, and the wage issue in Western Visayas would be left hanging if our resignation will be accepted,” Sancho said.
Dole-NIR had earlier said that workers in NIR will not be covered by any wage orders in Region 6 and 7, respectively, since it is already a separate region as mandated by Executive Order 183.
r“Like NIR, the resignation order among sectoral representatives now signals possible no wage increase for workers in Western Visayas,” Sancho said.
Sancho, who has been a labor representative for more than 20, said they are only representing the plight of the workers and not in control of any government transaction.
