Labor groups seek wage hike, halt to mass termination

MANILA, Philippines — Labor groups yesterday called for a wage increase and a halt in mass termination of workers nationwide.

The National Employment Recovery Strategy (NERS) of the government is insufficient to resolve the rising number of unemployed nationwide if it will not take measures to stop mass termination of workers, the Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP) and Defend Jobs Philippines said.

“If the Duterte administration truly wants to curb unemployment, the first step must be to stop giving capitalists carte blanche in implementing planned lay-offs and immediately suspend mass terminations that have already occurred,” BMP president Luke Espiritu said in a statement.

“The goal of generating millions of jobs in the next years will be undermined if the Duterte administration continues to turn a blind eye on the increasing number of workers plagued by mass lay-offs or the threat of mass lay-offs,” Espiritu said.

The government, he said, should at least adopt stringent procedures to verify that lay-offs are merited and not ploys to increase profit margins.

According to Espiritu, employers have been using the pandemic as an excuse to weaken unions and reduce workers, even in cases where the impact of the recession on their companies does not merit lay-offs.

He said employers are emboldened to terminate workers because the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) does not require companies to justify mass layoffs due to redundancy and retrenchment.

“The DOLE’s only requirement is that they and the workers be informed of the termination one month prior to its implementation,” he pointed out.

Espiritu said the main targets of mass layoffs have been regular employees and unionists who are then replaced with contractual workers.

Workers are also seeking a P100 across-the-board pay increase to help them cope with the spiralling prices of food and other basic commodities, Christian Lloyd Magsoy, Defend Jobs Philippines spokesman, said.

“Defend Jobs Philippines along with other labor groups are set to file before the National Wages and Productivity Board a formal petition for a P100 across-the-board emergency wage relief,” Magsoy said.

He added that workers are in dire need of wage increase, considering that the current P537 minimum wage of workers in Metro Manila has lost P100 of its real value due to the high prices of commodities and services amid the COVID-19 pandemic.