DOLE mulls productivity-based pay scheme for Cordilleras, Calabarzon

Four years since its implementation, the productivity-based pay scheme of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) is now undergoing a review for possible expansion.

In a statement, DOLE’s National Wage and Productivity Commission (NWPC) has ordered its Wage Policy and Research Division (WPRD) to study the enforcement of the twotiered wage system in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna Batangas, Rizal and Quezon), and Central Visayas.

TTWS was a new type of wage scheme, wherein workers will get a mandatory floor wage, and additional productivity-based pay, which could be voluntarily implemented by a company.

Since its launch in 2012, each Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board (RTWPB) issued advisories for some industries in their area, to pilot test the TTWS, particularly its productivity-based component.

For RTWPB CAR, the industries covered by the TTWS were administrative and support services group, hotels and restaurants and other service providers, manufacturing, and wholesale, retail trade and motor shops.

In RTWPB IV-A, it was agribusiness, services, and industry sectors, while for RTWPB XII it was its Industrial Tripartite Councils (ITC) Plantation.

A total of the 302 establishments were given technical assistance by the three RTWPBs to test the TTWS.

“The Wage Policy and Research Division has started conducting a series of focus group discussions with enterprises to assess the implementation of the advisories on productivity-based incentives schemes the Boards have issued,” NWPC said in a statement.

NWPC said participating companies will now be audited based on the following criteria: employee involvement in the design and implementation of productivity/performance incentive schemes; level of employee awareness; use of quantifiable work/ performance standards acceptable to both workers and management as basis for evaluating performance and the grant of incentive bonuses; and coverage and frequency or schedule of distribution of incentive/bonuses, among others.