Labor wants national minimum wage, subsidies

MANILA, Philippines — After President Duterte ordered the wage boards to convene, labor groups yesterday pushed for the adoption of a national minimum wage and the grant of P500 subsidy to minimum wage earners.

“President Duterte should amend his order to explicitly ask (for) a substantial salary hike as a relief measure and direct the wage boards to raise minimum wages to a national level,” Partido ng Manggagawa chair Renato Magtubo said in a statement.

He said the various wage boards must decisively base the determination of minimum wages on the cost of living and the living wage criteria, not on the capacity of employers to pay.

Based on records, the increase in minimum wage rates granted by the regional wage boards does not exceed P1,000 per month – way below the additional burden of expenses incurred by low income earners to date brought about by rising inflation, according to Magtubo.

“For the past three decades, wage orders by the regional boards are so low that, at present, it cannot offset the impact of the rising cost of living brought about by the TRAIN law and profiteering by unscrupulous employers,” he said, referring to the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion law.

Even Duterte, according to Magtubo, declared during a dialogue with labor leaders that there is a need to abolish what he termed as “provincial rates” of workers.

“Now is the perfect time to turn mere words into presidential action,” Magtubo said.

He added that while the abolition of the regional wage boards requires the repeal of the Wage Rationalization Act of 1989, there is no rule preventing the existing boards from coordinating action toward raising wages to a national minimum in response to a presidential call.

Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said he had long ordered the various regional and tripartite wage boards to discuss and study the effects of the TRAIN Law on workers.

“With or without petition, I gave an instruction or order to the wage boards to study the effects of TRAIN on the basis of which, they can already come up with their recommendation,” Bello said in an interview over dzBB.

Aside from the wage boards, Bello said there would also be consultations with labor groups concerning the TRAIN law.

The Associated Labor Union (ALU) yesterday expressed its full cooperation for the wage boards to convene and grant the much-needed wage adjustments for workers nationwide.

ALU vice president Gerard Seno said they have already received notices from the wage boards and their representatives will attend the wage board meetings.

The group is seeking an P800 across-the-board increase in the daily pay of all minimum wage earners nationwide.

“The wages should now be uniform rate because the poverty in Luzon is the same poverty felt by workers in the Visayas and Mindanao. The prices of commodities are the same in every region so the salary should also be uniform,” ALU spokesman Alan Tanjusay said.

Aside from pay hike, Seno said workers are also seeking the grant of P500 monthly subsidy for workers. 

He added that the ALU submitted a proposal to Duterte last April and the President has ordered a study on the matter.

The labor group is targeting four million minimum wage earners as beneficiaries.

Militant labor group Kilusang Mayo Uno, however, said Duterte’s order is a “useless makeup solution to the effects of the TRAIN law.”