Wage hike eyed to address jobs and skills mismatch

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the local construction industry are planning to increase the wages of skilled workers to address the growing concern of skills mismatch between the supply of workers and demands of the labor market as the government embarks on a massive infrastructure spending program.

"The DTI is currently doing a consultation with the Construction Industry Tripartite Council of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to look into the possible increase if the skilled workers' pay," Trade Undersecretary for Construction Industry Authority of the Philippines Ruth Castelo said in a press conference during the ASEAN+6 Construction Forum in Parañaque City on Wednesday.

Castelo made the statement amid growing concern on the "shortage" of skilled workers particularly in the construction sector, which may take a toll on the implementation of the government's big-ticket infrastructure projects.

The Trade official, however, claimed that there was no shortage of skilled workers but a mismatch of available skills against the requirement of the industry as the country still has an average unemployment rate of seven percent.

To address this, she said private construction companies have started to adjust the salary of skilled workers.

"They said they're looking at a possible P200 to P300 increase," Castelo said, noting that skilled workers are earning a minimum daily wage.

Philippine Overseas Construction Board chairman and DMCI Holdings Inc. president Isidro Consunji said the salary of skilled workers should be adjusted as the increasing minimum wage discourages people to be skilled workers.

"In my opinion, the wages of skilled people should be much different than unskilled people... taas nang taas 'yung minimum wage so nawawalan ng gana 'yung mga tao na gumawa ng skills," Consunji said.

Despite the perceived "shortage" in manpower due to skills mismatch, Castelo assured that Filipino workers would be given high priority in the government's infrastructure program, which is expected to generate 2.5 million jobs in the construction sector on top of the current 3.3 million workers in the industry.

The Duterte administration plans to spend P8.4 trillion to P9 trillion during the term of President Rodrigo Duterte on the "golden age of infrastructure."

"As we said we want employment to go to Filipino workers before we encourage foreign workers," Castelo said.

If the skills mismatch continued to persist, the Trade official said employing foreign skilled workers will be the government's "last resort" to implement the infrastructure on its pipeline on schedule.

Online)

(GMA News