Metro workers appeal for P75 wage hike

MANILA, Philippines – Metro Manila workers asked yesterday the National Wages and Productivity Commission (NWPC) to implement a P75 salary increase instead of the P22 increase recently granted by the regional wage board, saying that P22 is not sufficient to improve the living condition of ordinary wage earners.

The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) filed a motion for reconsideration at the NWPC seeking the nullification of the June 16 wage order of the National Capital Region wage board that granted the P22 wage hike to minimum-wage earners.

TUCP officer Raffy Mapalo said the workers are instead asking the wage board to implement the P75 across-the-board salary increase that the group had earlier asked for.

Mapalo said the wage order issued by the NCR wage board is contrary to law and must be set aside.

“To conform with the spirit of the law, the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board must issue a new wage order increasing the daily basic pay of all workers in Metro Manila by P75,” Mapalo pointed out.

The latest wage hike increased the minimum wage rate in Metro Manila to P404 a day.

TUCP said that the wage board, however, committed grave abuse of discretion and disregarded the very spirit of the Minimum Wage Law in coming out with the latest wage order.

“The law expressly mandates that in fixing minimum wages, the board shall ensure decent standard of living necessary for the efficiency and general well being of employees. The wage order is contrary to law,” TUCP said.

TUCP said the P22 increase in minimum wage is grossly inadequate and failed to comply with the criteria in minimum wage setting, particularly the provision on the demand for decent living wages.

The NCR Wage Order No. 15 clearly falls short of the criteria, “particularly the standards on (a) living wages; (f) improvements in standards of living, and (j) the equitable distribution of income and wealth,” TUCP claimed.

Labor department officials in the region have admitted that the latest wage increase merely restored the workers’ purchasing power to its 2008 level.

NCR wage board officials earlier said that they have considered all factors, including the need of the workers and the employers’ capacity to pay, in resolving the wage petition.

TUCP said that based on the National Statistics and Coordination Board (NSCB) report, a family of six needs more than P950 a day to enable the household to be considered under the living wages.

“The P404 minimum wage set by Wage Order No. 15 does not even approach the living wage requirement understood by this Honorable Commission. The amount is not even half of the requirements of a family of six,” TUCP explained.

“To increase minimum wages in NCR by P75 would bring the minimum wage level to P457. This rate would not bring the purchasing power of workers at par with increasing cost of living, nor would this secure the constitutional mandate for living wages. It is an initiative only to recoup the purchasing power lost due to spiraling prices of commodities and utilities and to forestall immediate future declines in real wages,” TUCP said. –Mayen Jaymalin (The Philippine Star)