Caraga workers seek P425 wage hike

MANILA, Philippines — Minimum wage workers in Caraga are seeking an increase of P425 in their daily pay.

The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) filed yesterday a petition to increase the daily wage in the region to P745.

“The current minimum daily wage of P320 can accord workers and their families only nutritionally deficient survival meals,” the TUCP said.

The salary hike petition covers minimum wage earners in Agusan del Norte, Agusan del Sur, Surigao del Norte, Surigao del Sur and Dinagat Island as well as in the cities of Butuan, Bayugan, Bislig, Cabadbaran, Surigao and Tandag.

The TUCP said it is not seeking an across-the-board wage hike to avoid what happened to the petition of workers in Metro Manila.

The Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board junked the petition of the TUCP for a salary hike of P470, saying an across-the-board wage hike petition is not within its jurisdiction.

“We are not including the phrase ‘across-the-board’ not because the employers are right and correct, but because we wanted to expedite a wage increase order,” TUCP president Raymond Mendoza said in a statement. ”Workers desperately need a substantial wage increase amid soaring cost of living.”

Mendoza said the TUCP would take up the issue with various wage boards in due time.

The TUCP said the last time the Caraga wage board granted a pay hike was three years ago. The P15 increase has long been eroded by price hikes, it said.

Several other petitions for salary hikes are pending before the wage boards in Metro Manila, Central Luzon, Calabarzon, Western Visayas, Central Visayas and Eastern Visayas.