MANILA, Philippines – Organized labor is pushing for the adoption of one national wage rate to increase the purchasing power of workers and their families.
Labor groups led by the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) said a single wage rate is easier and more rational than the current system of minimum wage fixing.
“It is more efficient to have only a single national rate that is negotiated by the national tripartite partners, as against the present practice of establishing several hundreds of minimum wage levels and rates,” workers noted.
Since the current minimum wage fixing is too complex and unclear, workers said compliance among employers is low and unsatisfactory.
The workers further expressed concern that the current system has led to decrease in coverage of the collective bargaining agreements.
An analysis of minimum wage rates and increases among the country’s 17 regions showed that rates of increases track each other very closely except in two or three regions.
“Differences in the actual prices of basic goods and services bought by wages among regions are not wide to justify regional wage fixing,” workers stressed.
They said with a national minimum wage, migration to major cities such as the National Capital Region, Cebu, and other areas with higher minimum wages would be averted.
“The policy of regional development by dispersing industries to the countryside through regional minimum wage fixing has failed, it merely accelerates the race to the bottom in terms of labor standards,” they added.
They also noted that the minimum wage has failed to improve the productivity of workers.
“Productivity is better linked to collective bargaining since it provide a fairer bargain on wages that is linked to performance and the growth of productivity,” they said.
National Wages and Productivity Commission (NWPC) executive director Ciriaco Lagunzad III said they could not determine yet whether it would support the recommendation of trade unions. – Mayen Jaymalin, Philippine Star
World Day for Safety and Health at Work
“Safety and health at work every day!”
Invoke Article 33 of the ILO constitution
against the military junta in Myanmar to carry out the 2021 ILO Commission of Inquiry recommendations against serious violations of Forced Labour and Freedom of Association protocols.
Accept National Unity Government
(NUG) of Myanmar.
Reject Military!
#WearMask #WashHands #Distancing #TakePicturesVideos
Monthly Observances:
March – Women’s Role in History Month
April – Month of Planet Earth
Weekly Observances:
Last Week of March: Protection and Gender Fair Treatment of the Girl Child Week
Last Week of April – World Immunization Week
Daily Observances:
Mar 25 – International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transallantic Slave Trade
Mar 27– Earth Hour
Apr 21 – Civil Service Day
Apr 22 – World Earth Day
Apr 28 – World Day for Safety and Health at Work
