By CHRIS V. PANGANIBAN
ROSARIO, Agusan del Sur— Some 2,050 regular workers of a gold mining company here will receive higher salary rates at a minimum of P390 per day after the Collective Bargaining Agreement(CBA) between the labor group and the management was sealed on Wednesday afternoon.
In the presence of regional officials of the Department of Labor and Employment and National Conciliation and Mediation Board (NCMB) as witnesses, lawyer Raul C. Villanueva, president of the Philsaga Mining Corp. (PMC) and Jaime Pizarro, president of Philsaga Employees Union (PSELU) signed the CBA that will take effect in July this year until 2028.
PSELU is affiliated with Philippine Trade and General Workers Organization (PTGWO).
The P390 across-the-board pay hike is P40 higher than the P350 minimum wage rate in Caraga region. By next year, the minimum rate increase will P45 and by 2025 it would be P50 hike.
Apart from the pay hike, the mine workers will also enjoy daily hazard pays and the rates vary fron non hazard with P20 per day to hazardous work assignment to P25 per day while miners working inside the tunnels get P45 per day hazard pay.
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 that effective July 1 this year, all regular workers and those who will become regular workers on that date will get P7,000 signing bonus.
He said the 50-kilo sack of rice subsidy every two months or six sacks a year will continue with the new CBA adding that birthday leave is granted with a condition that the workers will have to undergo annual physical examination a month before.
In his message, Villanueva took pride in saying that in the last 14 years, the company has sustained industrial peace without any incident of labor strike.
“We aim to maintain social justice, by giving social, economic and political opportunities to all of the workers,” Villanueva said.
For his part, Pizarro assured the management that he will encourage union members to be always be doing 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 of and Dariius Guerrero, PTGWO national secretary.
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