ZAMBOANGA CITY (Mindanao Examiner / July 28, 2013) – A respected businessman in Zamboanga City said there is a need to review labor policies and come up with strategies that will trickle down to the grassroots.
Speaking at the recently concluded “Project Job Fits: DOLE 2020 Vision,” Pedro Rufo Soliven, who is also the president of the Zamboanga Chamber of Commerce and Industry Foundation Inc., said the “one size, fits all” policy will not work in the current economic situation citing the dynamics in the region and called for a more relevant and “out-of-the box” strategy that will raise the level of competitiveness as a regional player.
According to the National Statistical Coordination Board, the Gross Regional Domestic Product decelerated and the Family Income Expenditure Survey by the National Statistics Office also shows that Zamboanga Peninsula ranked 2nd to the last and next to the Muslim autonomous region. And the data show that unemployment and underemployment rate is at 30.6%.
Soliven enumerated numerous road blocks to achieve economic competency and one of which is the mandated minimum wage.
He said while there is the wage law, whose objective is paved with good intention to help workers, however economic research shows that minimum wages are harming more workers in the labor market and the broader economy because it discriminate and provide a barrier to the entry of low skilled workers into the job market and therefore creating a security problem in the region.
“An idle brain is the devil’s workshop and a hungry stomach knows no law,” Soliven said. “We also have to look at not only in creating job opportunities; rather we have to look at job preservation of those who are already gainfully employed.”
“With every new mandated wage increase, the natural reaction for employers will be to reduce hiring of workers, cut working hours, resort to outsourcing, job contracting and pass on this extra cost to the consumers to remain viable or for distressed companies, to keep its head just above waters in order to survive, others would simply violate the mandated minimum wage order,” Soliven said.
He said the current economic state of Zamboanga Peninsula and the coming of ASEAN integration in 2015, and the issue of competitiveness and positioning of the region to cohesively compete underscores several weaknesses which can be reverse by reviewing current policies that are creating more harm than good.
Soliven proposed to let free market forces dictate the wages and provide a structure in the productivity and incentive schemes for workers in the service and industrial sector and to have an open and high level discussion to address the issue whether mandated minimum wage is a boon or a bane to the regional economy.
“At the end of the day, we don’t kill the goose that lays the golden egg, commerce and industry sector is the key employment generator, the engine of growth and creators of wealth, its continued operations and viability of these companies must also be a strong case for consideration to review and revisit the present minimum wage law,” he said. (Alberto Francisco III)
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