House endorses legislated P125 wage hike

The House committee on labor and employment unanimously endorsed yesterday a bill seeking a legislated P125 daily wage increase.

The amount the panel wants employers to give their workers in pay adjustment is four times the P30 increase in cost-of-living allowance (COLA) that the regional wage board for Metro Manila has ordered.

The authors of the P125 wage hike bill were elated by the endorsement of their measure by the labor committee chaired by Rep. Roseller Barinaga of Zamboanga del Norte.

Militant labor leader Crispin Beltran said he and his colleagues would now enlist the support of Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. for the amount of pay hike that they are pushing.

Beltran is one of three House representatives of the leftist group Bayan Muna. He and Bayan Muna colleagues Satur Ocampo and Liza Maza were the principal authors of the bill.

Several other lawmakers co-authored the measure. They include Representatives Trinidad Apostol, Eduardo Veloso and Ted Failon, all of Leyte; Prospero Pichay Jr. of Surigao del Sur and Krisel Lagman-Luistro of Albay.

Asked to comment on the labor committee’s decision, Rep. Oscar Moreno (Lakas, Misamis Oriental), who chairs the economic affairs committee, said there should be a "happy balance" between the interests of workers and employers.

He said the House has to look at the workers’ demand for and right to a wage adjustment, and the capacity of employers and the economy in general to absorb such an increase.

"I am looking forward to having the measure taken up on the floor so we can exhaustively debate on it," he added.

Apparently, there is realization among lawmakers that the P30 COLA increase was not enough.

In the Senate, President Pro Tempore Manuel Villar Jr. is pushing for a P50 wage hike.  – Jess Diaz