Solon lambasts Palace’s no wage hike policy, pushes P125 increase

Anakpawis party-list Rep. Rafael Mariano yesterday assailed Malacañang for its continuing “no wage hike policy,” stressing “at this time of worsening economic crisis, it is far more just for the working class to demand a wage increase.”

At the weekly Ayes and Nays News Forum, Mariano also reiterated his call for P125 wage increase and said the Palace position opposing such call “is totally wrong and anti-worker to let the working people choose between jobs and living wage, both of which are much needed by workers.”

Malacañang has consistently turned down demands for a wage increase, saying the government’s priority now is to ensure that employees would keep their jobs amid the global financial crisis.

Press Secretary Cerge Remonde said the matter should be left to the collective bargaining agreements between labor and management of individual companies and in the regional tripartite wage and productivity boards.

Citing figures from the militant labor center Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU), Mariano said “the current daily cost of living that is already pegged at P922 is too far from the current P382 minimum wage received by workers in the National Capital Region.”

Mariano added “strengthening the purchasing power of workers will generate a vibrant trade and local economy.”

“It is unfortunate that big capitalists exploit the current crisis as the most convenient excuse to further exploit and profit from labor. Even before the centers of capitalism collapsed, workers are always the ones who sacrifice,” Mariano said.

He added “employers now implement different restructuring programs that ensure profits of corporations while disregarding the interests of workers.”

Mariano cited “San Miguel Corp.’s zero-wage hike policy being implemented in its affiliate industries and the looming retrenchment of more than 300 workers due to the forthcoming closure of Monterey Farms in spite of the conglomerates P168 billion net profit last year.”

The Anakpawis lawmaker also called on workers to oppose and expose the illegal and massive wage cuts, reduction of work hours and work shifts, longer working hours without overtime pay and other schemes cutting wages and benefits of workers.

Mariano urged the House committee on labor and employment to reopen deliberations on House Bill 1722 or the P125 across-the-board legislated wage increase and other measures that propose concrete assistance and economic relief for workers.

However, using the global financial meltdown as his argument, TUCP party-list Rep. Raymond Mendoza opposed any call for a legislated wage hike.

“At this point in time when we have this global financial crisis, it would be worng to implement a legislated P125 wage increase,” Mendoza said. –Charlie V. Manalo, Daily Tribune