PRESIDENTIAL DECREE No. 1678

PROVIDING FOR A PROVISIONAL MANDATORY EMERGENCY LIVING ALLOWANCE OF P2.00 A DAY FOR NON-AGRICULTURAL WORKERS AND P1.50 A DAY FOR AGRICULTURAL WORKERS.

WHEREAS, it is the policy of the government under the New Society to protect workers from the effects of inflation to prevent erosion of real wages and sustained their employment; and

WHEREAS, it is necessary for the government to act promptly to meet this crisis provisionally without prejudice to the convening of a National Tripartite Conference later on to review the price-wage adjustment issues;

NOW, THEREFORE, I, FERDINAND E. MARCOS, President and Prime Minister, by virtue of the powers vested in me by the Constitution of the Republic of the Philippines, and upon the urgent recommendation of the Minister of Labor and the Cabinet Standing Committee, hereby decree:

Section 1. All private employers shall pay their employees whose wage or salary is not more than P1,500.00 a month an additional mandatory living allowance of P2.00 a day for non-agricultural workers and P1.50 a day for agricultural workers.

Section 2. The Minister of Labor shall convene a National Tripartite Conference not later than the last week of April 1980 for the purpose of evaluating the price and wage situation.

Section 3. Nothing in this Decree shall be construed as constraining employers and workers organizations from taking efforts to adjust wages and allowances over and above the statutory minimum according to their respective means.

Section 4. In the case of temporarily distressed or dislocated enterprises or new enterprises, full or fifty per cent exemptions from or deferment of, compliance may be granted by the Wage Commission upon joint representation of labor and management.

Section 5. Employers who have given increases in wages and/or allowances of at least P2.00 a day for non-agricultural workers or P1.50 a day for agricultural workers on or after February 8, 1980, whether granted unilaterally or by collective agreement, shall be deemed to have complied with this Decree. Those who have given less than P2.00 or P1.50, as the case may be, a day shall pay the difference.

Section 6. The Minister of Labor shall promulgate rules and regulations to implement this Decree.

Section 7. This Decree shall take effect immediately.

Done in the City of Manila, this 20th day of February, in the year 1980.