Financial package awaits workers on Labor Day

MANILA, Philippines -  Additional financial benefits and new jobs await workers on Labor Day, as well as a house and lot to be given to a lucky employee.

Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III yesterday reported that as a Labor Day gift to workers nationwide, President Duterte is set to grant them additional benefits.

“We are drafting a proposal, which the President will announce on Monday’s Labor Day celebration in Davao. It’s a possible financial benefits (package) that will address the workers’ demand on wages,” Bello disclosed.

The President, Bello said, is leading the Labor Day assembly and dialogue with workers to be held in the People’s Park in Davao City. About 10,000 workers are expected to attend the event.

He said the President and other Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) officials would meet labor leaders to discuss various concerns of workers, including the controversial issue of contractualization.

Bello noted that the workers’ demand for the implementation of a national minimum wage is beyond the powers of the President and requires the passage of a new law by Congress.

If the labor groups formally file a petition for an increase in the daily take-home pay of minimum wage earners, Bello said the issue will be studied by the different Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Boards (RTWPBs).

“The workers are seeking a P157 increase in daily pay and this is something that needs to be studied seriously if the employers can afford it,” he said.

But Bello said the department will look into the request of the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP), the country’s largest labor group for the government to grant P500 subsidy for minimum wage earners.

“The request for a subsidy requires a huge fund amounting to P1.3 billion a month or some P15 billion a year. We are not totally discounting it, but we are looking at giving other possible benefits for our workers, especially those from the private sector,” Bello pointed out.

At a press conference yesterday, Pag-IBIG Fund officer-in-charge Acmad Rizaldy Moti also announced that the agency is giving away a house and lot to a lucky worker participating in the Labor Day event in Davao.

“We will be raffling a house and lot and in the same day we shall also draw the winner of P1-million prize of our Dagdag Ipon Raffle Promo,” Moti said while noting that giving away house and lot is Pag-IBIG’s contribution to the Labor Day celebration.

Aside from the financial benefits and house and lot to be given away on May 1, Labor Undersecretary Joel Maglunsod said the department would set up 56 job fairs in the country’s 18 regions.

Maglunsod said a total of 201,811 local and overseas jobs would be available for new graduates and jobseekers during the fairs.

The DOLE admitted that though the problem of jobs and skills mismatch still prevails in the country, labor officials expressed confidence that 20 percent of job vacancies to be offered shall be filled during the event.

Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) also urged Duterte to immediately grant a pay hike to help workers cope with rising prices of commodities.

The workers said the current minimum wage in Metro Manila does not even reach half of the Family Living Wage that has now increased to P1,119.
Bello said increasing the minimum wage of workers nationwide is beyond the powers of the President.

Bello said the minimum wage is the responsibility of the different RTWPBs in Metro Manila that will study the possibility of granting a salary increase for minimum wage earners once labor groups formally file a petition before the board.

Concerning the calls to implement a national minimum wage, Bello said Congress must pass a new law for the implementation of such policy.  

KMU also plans to hold protest actions to express their displeasure over the country’s hosting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit.

Various labor groups are staging a rally on the last day of the summit on Saturday.

According to KMU, the ASEAN summit promotes anti-worker neoliberal policies of cheap, flexible and docile labor.

KMU said ASEAN has pushed for further trade and investment liberalization, deregulation of labor policies, and denationalization of underdeveloped economies resulting in unemployment, contractual employment, depressed wages and suppression of workers’ rights by foreign and local big corporations especially in special economic zones.

But KMU urged President Duterte, as ASEAN chairperson, to influence its member economies especially in underdeveloped countries in rejecting the US’ neoliberal impositions and to adopt his position against contractualization and poverty wages. 

Bello said hundreds of overseas Filipino workers employed as “direct hires” won’t be able to leave the country, at least for the next few weeks.

He suspended the processing and deployment of direct hires amid reports of irregularities in the issuance of clearances.