BACOLOD CITY, Philippines—A labor group in Negros Occidental is appealing to President-elect Benigno Aquino III to prod Congress to legislate an across-the-board wage hike of P150 per day for workers in the private sector.
Wennie Sancho, convener of the Negros Labor Coalition, said they were asking Aquino to help them push for legislated wage increases in line with his promise to empower the powerless and dispossessed of the country.
Sancho said the labor sector was ready to hit the streets again should the management of companies and the government continue to ignore their calls for a wage increase.
Sancho, labor’s representative in the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board in Western Visayas, made the appeal for presidential intervention during a consultation held here on Wednesday by the wage board to discuss the petition for a P50 daily wage hike in the region filed by the Trade Union of Filipino Workers.
Acting Labor regional director Crispin Dannug Jr., who presided over the meeting, said the regional wage board might make a decision on the petition before the end of June.
Dannug said the wage board has completed all consultations on the proposed wage hike and would be holding three more meetings before making a decision.
Management has made a counter-offer of a P10 daily wage hike but Dannug revealed that some business owners were amenable to an increase of up to P25 a day.
Sancho called the P10 pay hike offer of management “demeaning and outrageous.”
“We are fed up begging for salary increases only to be outvoted because of the lopsided composition of the wage board,” Sancho said.
The board is composed of two representatives each from labor and management and one from the Department of Labor and Employment, the regional director who chairs the board.
On the other hand, Sancho pointed out, management continues to enjoy a period of profitability, especially with the rise in sugar prices, as evidenced by their brand new cars and opulent lifestyles, while the workers remain poor.
That is the reason why labor is urging Congress to repeal Republic Act 6727, the law that created the regional wage boards, so that the power to legislate pay hikes is restored to Congress, he said. –Carla Gomez, Philippine Daily Inquirer
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