Duterte prodded to speed up wage hike

MANILA, Philippines — President Duterte has been asked to order the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Boards (RTWPB) to act swiftly on a petition seeking to increase the minimum salary of workers amid the soaring prices of basic commodities.

In a letter to Duterte dated March 17, the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines sought the President’s help to instruct the RTWPB to immediately hear and approve the wage hike petition that the TUCP filed in Metro Manila.

The five million minimum wage workers are fast becoming the new poor, according to TUCP president Raymond Democrito Mendoza.

“It has been years since the last wage increase, and as prices of basic goods continue to spike, minimum wage earners will no longer be able to cope,” Mendoza said.

“The lack of a just wage, enough to support the daily needs of a Filipino family, is a social powder keg waiting to explode,” he added.

He said the Congress approval of a national minimum wage increase would take too long and would raise false expectations as he underscored the urgency of adjusting the workers’ pay.

“Workers cannot wait when Congress resumes to tackle our proposed wage measures,” Mendoza said.

He noted that the 18th Congress will only have a few weeks of session after the May 9 elections until it adjourns in the first week of June.

There will not be enough time for Congress to provide urgent relief for minimum wage earners through legislation, according to Mendoza.

“This is the reason why we are asking the President to order the RTPWBs to move fast and approve our wage hike petition,” he said.

Flexible work

Newly appointed Civil Service Commission (CSC) Chairman Karlo Nograles said he is open to the possibility of continuing to allow government employees to render services under flexible work arrangements.

“While many struggled, many also found the work-life balance they needed in blended on-site, off-site work arrangements. I believe this is worth studying without compromising the quality of our services,” Nograles said in a statement yesterday.

Nograles said he would consult the CSC’s regional and field offices in the coming weeks “to hear their concerns and suggestions to formulate plans for the civil service.”

Proposal for a four-day work week was raised by the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) amid rising oil prices.

The TUCP as well as the labor group Partido ng Manggagawa both rejected NEDA’s proposal, saying that longer work hours would expose workers to risk of stress, fatigue and would take away family time.

Meanwhile, Nograles said modernizing public service delivery and honing digitally savvy and professional civil servants would be the top priorities of his administration in the CSC.

“Digital solutions should empower and not intimidate our civil servants,” he said.

Nograles said he wants to continue leveraging digital tools for professionalizing civil servants and to transform the government’s approach to professionalizing the civil service “by going beyond punitive actions for accountability and establishing proactive programs.”

Lacson backs 4-day work week

Partido Reporma presidential candidate Sen. Panfilo Lacson believes it reasonable to implement a four-day work week, as long as daily wage earners are properly compensated to help them cope with the spate of fuel price hikes.

He said a four-day work week will not only help Filipinos save on fuel, but give them more time to spend with their families on their days off.

“As long as daily wage earners will be compensated for their extended hours of work which should be equivalent to five days, I will support that four-day work week so we can save on fuel. It is a good suggestion and we should support that,” Lacson said before the weekend.

NEDA director-general Karl Chua has recommended a four-day work week to alleviate costs on related expenses such as food and transportation.

Lacson said he is willing to discuss with Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III his proposal to suspend excise taxes on fuel to give Filipinos breathing space amid the fuel price hikes.

He said the Department of Finance (DOF)’s proposal of additional relief of P200 a month or P2,400 a year through unconditional cash transfers to the bottom half of Filipino households may not be enough for them to get by.

He said suspending the excise tax when fuel prices reach a certain threshold and reimposing it when prices go below that threshold is more practical.

“We may have a chance to meet with Secretary Dominguez,” he said.

He said while suspending excise taxes could mean at least P131 billion in forgone revenues, the conflict in Ukraine – a major cause of the fuel price spikes – will hopefully not last long.

For her part, Sen. Risa Hontiveros expressed support yesterday for the extension of work-from-home (WFH) arrangement for business process outsourcing (BPO) workers during and even after the oil price crisis has come to pass.

“I support the extension of the work-from-home arrangement for workers, especially now that we are in the middle of an oil price crisis,” she said.

Hontiveros issued the statement as the Fiscal Incentives Review Board (FIRB) rejected the extension of remote work arrangements for BPOs. In case the companies do not comply, they risk having their tax incentives revoked, which might harm their business and further delay recovery.

The senator, however, said the FIRB can always revise these tax incentive terms. She said it is reasonable to let BPO workers continue with the WFH setup to help cushion the effects of rising transport costs.

“Our workers should be given the option to work at home so they save on fare expenses and lessen the stress of commuting. During these times, there must be leniency in implementing policies for the welfare of workers,” Hontiveros said.

She deemed erroneous the DOF’s view that ending the work-from-home scheme will revive economic demand resulting from BPO workers’ expenditures.

The NEDA and DOF’s argument against work from home should not be legalistic, she said.

Aside from BPOs, Hontiveros said employers should also offer the option of working from home for workers who have performed well during the pandemic, even if they did not show up on site every day. – Elizabeth Marcelo, Paolo Romeo