Labor group demands P120 wage hike in Central Visayas

CEBU, Philippines — The Associated Labor Unions-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (ALU-TUCP) formally filed yesterday its petition to increase wages by P120 per day for all private workers in Central Visayas.

The petition was filed before the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board-7 by ALU-TUCP regional vice president Nora Analyn Diego and Ferdinand Jumapao, ALU-TUCP director for membership recruitment and services department.

ALU-TUCP spokesman Alan Tanjusay said the current minimum wage in Region 7 is P366. But according to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and National Wages and Productivity Commission, its buying power is now only P308.34 due to rising prices of commodities and services in the region.

In a separate interview, Diego said the P366 daily wage for Central Visayas does not reflect the real purchasing power.

“The P120.00 daily wage increase in Region 7 is essential if workers are to cope with the increasing cost of living, meet the basic needs of workers and their families, even if only partially and give meaning and substance to the country's policy of equitable distribution of income and wealth," the group’s three-page petition read.

According to the petition, the P13 daily wage increase that took effect on March 10, 2017 has been overtaken by the increases in power rates, water rates, health and education costs, the prices of oil and its products, liquefied petroleum gas and of basic goods and services.

Despite gains in the economy and productivity, workers and their families have not been granted a single peso in real wage since 1989, the petition claimed.

This, despite the fact that Region-7 has been contributing to the growth of the national economy. In 2014-15, for instance, Central Visayas’ gross regional development product growth rate was 5.4 percent and 11.5 percent in 2015-16.

Last February 28, four worker’s groups also filed a petition for wage adjustment of P155.80 for all the workers in the non-agricultural and agricultural sectors in Central Visayas

The petitioners were the Cebu Labor Coalition, NLM-Katipunan, Metaphil Workers Union, and Unionbank Employees Association.

The seven-member RTWPB-7 is expected to tackle the two wage petitions during its regular meeting today. —JMD (FREEMAN)