Increased daily labor rate for city project mulled

July 10, 2021 Metro BLISTT

The city council last Monday discussed the proposal of the City Engineering Office (CEO) to adjust the daily rate of labor for city government projects in the city.
Under the proposal, a foreman’s daily labor rate shall be adjusted from P750.00 to P763.00; a skilled laborer’s daily rate shall be adjusted from P500.00 to P554.00; and an unskilled laborer’s rate shall be adjusted from P320.00 to P427.00.
The proposed adjustment was based on the Wage Order No. RB-CAR-20 of the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board-CAR.
The matter was raised during the meeting of the City Development Council (CDC) held on September 25, 2020. The CDC members expressed the need to increase the daily rate of labor for government projects in order to encourage a more competitive bidding resulting in higher quality of project implementation.
Vice Mayor Faustino Olowan said the contractors are put off by the low daily rate of laborers for government projects in the city, thus, are discouraged to participate in the bidding. He claimed the actual payment given by contractors to the laborers is much higher than the present daily labor rate, adding that increasing the said rate is certainly necessary.
The proposed adjusted daily rate shall cover the worker’s basic wage, leaves, 13th month pay, and social benefits such as Social Security System, PhilHealth, and PAGIBIG. Several members of the city council and City Accountant Antonio Tabin, however, raised a few concerns regarding the proposed adjustment.
Councilor Betty Lourdes Tabanda stressed that matters concerning the social contributions of both the contractor and the worker should be clearly stipulated in the contract as it is not clear in the proposal who will shoulder these social contributions.
For City Accountant Antonio Tabin, the proposed adjustment which covers the social benefits is only applicable to permanent workers in a construction company and not to those who are on a job order status or those who are hired only for a short period of time.
He added there is a need to require contractors to submit documents proving that these government contributions are being regularly remitted to ensure the prescribed labor rate which covers the social benefits is followed.
The council members concurred with the suggestion of Arch. Donna Tabangin, City Planning and Development Coordinator, to postpone the implementation of this proposal taking into account several issues that still need to be resolved.
Councilor Arthur Allad-iw also proposed that a consultation with the laborers and the contractors be held in order to come up with a consensus among all concerned stakeholders.
Jordan G. Habbiling/ABN