Labor, employers group clash anew over pay hike

Members of the Confederation for Unity, Recognition and Advancement of Government Employees gather near the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) in Manila, on June 26, 2024 to urge the government to implement a minimum P33,000 monthly salary for its employees. PHOTOS BY MIKE ALQUINTO

LABOR and employers groups again clashed over the workers' demand for no less than a P150 wage increase, this time during the public hearing of the National Capital Region (NCR) wage board to decide the new minimum wage for its 1.1 million daily wage earners.

The employers turned down the workers' plea, represented by the National Wage Coalition (NWC), for the P150 across-the-board increase, which is similar to the P150 legislated wage hike being pushed in Congress by the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP).

The employers group reportedly accused the NWC of playing politics, and insisted instead on a one-year wage freeze.

At most, another employer representative said, any daily wage hike should be limited to ₱16 to ₱24.

The NWC is composed of trade union centers, labor federations, and workers organizations led by the TUCP, Kilusang Mayo Uno, Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino, and Nagkaisa Labor Coalition.

TUCP Vice President Luis Corral said the "employers' cavalier and insulting dismissal of our P150 across-the-board wage increase demand smacks of classic corporate arrogance and insensitivity."

Corral reminded employers it is the workers who created the business owner's wealth and the nation's wealth.

He said the ₱150 increase is reasonable because "it is just a simple wage recovery measure backed up by data and proof."

"Before both the wage board and Congress, labor leaders and think tanks cited data on how rice and electricity inflation impacts worker lives, how our eroded purchasing power is resulting in a more hungry and deprived people, and how a 20-year labor productivity vastly outpacing wages has resulted in greater inequality. We have simulated current salaries falling far short of the estimated living wage," he said.

"Employers want a moratorium on wage increases because of the Covid-19 pandemic, geopolitical volatility, and climate change. Workers remind employers and the government that workers have sacrificed and that all must sacrifice and all must bear the burden, not just the workers. Workers cannot always be the whipping boys in a Philippine economy where many companies are raking in the profits," Corral said.

The NWC reiterated the united call for a P150 wage hike.

It also pointed out that the employers' falsely branding any legitimate wage demand as "catastrophic" was exposed by various economists and academics who attended the hearing as resource persons.

"These expert opinions should be heeded by the regional wage boards instead of the big lie and fear-mongering of employers that a wage increase will result in skyrocketing prices and the fear-mongering of massive joblessness and business closures peddled by those who solely want to corner the profits in a legal form of plunder," Corral said.

In the face of soaring food and power prices, the NWC said it is relying on the regional boards to perform their mandate by granting an increase based on the standards of wage setting enshrined in Republic Act 6727 or the Wage Rationalization Act.

At the forefront in wage determination, it pointed out, are the needs of workers and their families, employers' capacity to pay, and requirements of economic and social development, among others.

The factors have been cited by the labor sector to stress the need to raise workers' wages by at least P150 as the first pivotal step towards the fundamental right to living wages of Filipino workers and their families.

"Otherwise, another too little too late token increases, which amount to mere scraps, will be the final indictment on the long-overdue review, reform, and even abolition of the regional wage boards for committing a grave injustice to countless Filipino workers and their families by depriving them of the fruits of their labor for more than three decades already," it said.

Labor Secretary Bienvenido Laguesma said the NCR wage board is expected to come out with a new wage order by July 16.

The NCR board is the first wage board to comply with the President's Labor Day address to review regional minimum wage rates "within 60 days prior to the anniversary of their latest wage order."

The daily minimum wage in the NCR is P610 for workers in the non-agriculture sector and P573 for workers in the agriculture sector, service/retail establishments employing 15 workers or less, and manufacturing establishments regularly employing less than 10 workers.