ROSARIO, Agusan del Sur (MindaNews / 08 June) – Workers of a gold mining company here will receive a P40 across-the-board daily wage hike starting next month, after the management and the labor union sealed their Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) on Wednesday.
The Philsaga Mining Corp. (PMC), which employs at 2,050 regular workers, will pay minimum wage earners P390 daily effective July.
Currently, the minimum daily wage rate in the Caraga region is P350.
In the presence of regional officials from the Department of Labor and Employment and the National Conciliation and Mediation Board (NCMB) as witnesses, lawyer Raul Villanueva, PMC president, and Jaime Pizarro, president of Philsaga Employees Union (PSELU), signed the CBA that will be effective until July 2028.
PSELU is affiliated with the Philippine Trade and General Workers Organization (PTGWO).
By next year, the the company will increase the daily rate to P45 and P50 in 2025.
Apart from the pay hike, the mine workers will also enjoy a daily hazard pay. For those working inside the mine tunnels, they will get a daily hazard pay of P45, P20 for workers in non-hazardous assignment and P25 to those doing hazardous assignment other than mine tunnel workers.
The hazard pay was added in the health and safety provisions of the newly-signed CBA.
Villanueva also announced during the CBA signing event at the company’s administration building here that effective July 1, all regular workers and those who will become regular workers from that date will get a P7,000 signing bonus.
He said the 50-kilo rice subsidy every two months, or six sacks a year, will continue with the new CBA.
Villanueva added that birthday leaves will also be granted, provided that workers will have to undergo annual physical examination a month before their birthdays.
In his message, Villanueva noted that in the last 14 years, the company has sustained its industrial peace, meaning there had been no labor strike during the period.
“We aim to maintain social justice by giving social, economic and political opportunities to all the workers,” Villanueva said.
For his part, Pizarro assured the management that he will encourage union members to always do good and become productive “so that the company will always listen to their future demands.”
Present during the CBA signing were DOLE assistant regional director Raymond Fel Sajor, NCMB regional director Maria Theresa Francisco, lawyer Arnel Dolendo, PTGWO national president, and Darius Guerrero, PTGWO national secretary. (Chris V. Panganiban / MindaNews)
