An Act Amending Further the Minimum Wage Law by Increasing the Minimum Wage, Establishing a Wage Commission and for Other Purposes

REPUBLIC ACT No. 6129

An Act Amending Further the Minimum Wage Law by Increasing the Minimum Wage, Establishing a Wage Commission and for Other Purposes

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Philippine Congress Assembled:

Section 1. Section three, paragraphs (a), (b), (c) and (d) of Republic Act Numbered Six hundred two, as amended, is hereby further amended to read as follows:

Section 2. The provisions of Sections 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 of Republic Act Numbered Six hundred two are hereby repealed and in lieu thereof the following sections are hereby respectively substituted:

Section 3. Section 15 (a) and 16 (b) of the Minimum Wage Law hereby amended to read as follows:

Section 4. If any part or provision of this Act should be declared unconstitutional and invalid, the validity of the other parts or provisions hereof shall not be affected thereby.

Section 5. All Acts or parts of Acts inconsistent with the provisions of this Act are hereby repealed.

Section 6. The sum of Five hundred thousand pesos or so much thereof as may be necessary is hereby appropriated out of any funds in the National Treasury not otherwise appropriated, for the initial operating expenses of the Wage Commission, which shall include expenses for salaries, per diems, travelling expenses, purchase of materials and equipment and other necessary sundry expenses that may be incurred in carrying out the provisions of this Act. The expenses for succeeding fiscal years shall be included in the Annual Appropriations Act.

Section 7. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

Approved: June 17, 1970.

"Sec. 3. Minimum Wage.—

"(a) Every employer shall pay to each of his employees who is employed by an enterprise other than in agriculture minimum wages of not less than eight pesos a day: Provided, That is retail or service enterprises that regularly employ not more than five employees the minimum wage shall not be less that six pesos a day from the date of approval of this amendatory Act: Provided, further, That the minimum wage rates prescribed in this and the next succeeding subsection shall be basic, cash wages, without deducting from the said minimum wages for industrial and agricultural workers prescribed in this Act, whatever benefits or allowances which the workers now enjoy aside from their basic pay, subject to the pertinent provisions of this Act: And, Provided, finally, That nothing herein shall justify an employer from violating any existing minimum wage order which grant benefits more liberal than those established under this Act.

"(b) Every employer who operates a farm enterprise shall pay to each of his employees, who is engaged in agriculture, minimum wages of not less than four pesos and seventy-five centavos a day.

"(c) Effective on the first of July, nineteen hundred seventy the minimum wage rate of employees in the government service shall be as follows: for national government and all government-owned and/or controlled corporations laborers and workers the same rates as provided in paragraph (a) hereof; and for provinces, municipalities, and cities the minimum wage shall be fixed by the respective provinces, municipalities, and cities as their finances may permit, provided the same shall not be less than five pesos or the minimum wages being paid at the time of the approval of this amendatory Act, whichever be higher.

"(d) This Act shall not apply to farm tenancy, household service, and persons working in their respective houses in needlework or in any cottage industry registered under the provisions of Republic Act Numbered Three thousand four hundred seventy."

"Sec. 4. Wage Studies; Industry Wage Agreements.—

"Sec. 5. Wage Fixing By Commission.—

"Sec. 6. Appeal From Wage Order.—

"Sec. 7. Wage Commission; Composition; Tenure of Office.—

"Sec. 8. Powers and Duties of Commission.—

"Sec. 15. Penalties and Recovery of Wage Due Under This Act.—

"Sec. 16. (b) The Court of Industrial Relations shall have jurisdiction over claims for payment of minimum wages where there still exist between the parties an employer-employee relationship, or where the claimant seek reinstatement. In the absence of any of these circumstances, such claim shall come under the jurisdiction of the regular courts.

"Any provision of law or rules of court to the contrary notwithstanding, oral evidence shall be admissible to rebut, impugn, or otherwise modify the contents of payrolls, vouchers, pay slips, time records, and other documents containing the signature of an employee or laborer in such cases, the payrolls, vouchers, pay slips, time records, and other similar documents being merely prima facie evidence of their contents.

"The fixing of minimum wages on an industry-wide basis above those fixed by this Act shall be within the jurisdiction of the wage commission, by that in particular firms or enterprises shall be within the jurisdiction of the Court of Industrial Relations."