Gov’t OKs ‘pittance’ wage hikes in 2 regions

LESS THAN a third of the amount of daily pay increase that labor groups demanded have been approved by wage boards in two regions.

In Southern Mindanao, workers are to receive a P21 increase in daily pay by August.

Virginia Camus, labor representative at the regional wage board, said workers had demanded a P75 increase in daily pay increase, but the P21 increase approved by the board was the “best win-win” solution.

“The P21 additional wage for minimum wage earners is not really enough,” she said.

Nonagricultural workers in the region will receive P271 plus P15 in cost of living allowance (Cola). Agriculture, retail and service industry workers will receive P261 plus P15 in Cola.

In Sta. Cruz, Davao del Sur, workers insisted that P75 was a fair increase in daily pay.

Elmer Labog, chair of the Kilusang Mayo Uno in Southern Mindanao, said the group had hoped President Aquino would discuss the plight of workers in his State of the Nation Address on Monday.

“I didn’t hear any commitment to uplift the lives of workers,” he said.

Renato Magtubo, of the Partido ng Manggagawa, said workers would continue to suffer not only from poor wages but also the refusal of many employers to pay the minimum wage.

Magtubo said labor contracting should also be stopped because it deprives workers security of tenure.

In Western Visayas, labor groups deplored the P15 increase in daily pay approved by the region’s wage board.

Wennie Dublezo, coordinator of the militant Kilusang Mayo Uno in Panay, said the wage board “serve no other purpose than to ensure that wages of workers are kept low.”

Nonagriculture workers in Western Visayas will get P265 per day and agriculture workers, P233. “This is pittance,” said Dublezo.

John Peter Millan, employer representative at the wage board, had said employers could afford only P10-P15 in daily pay increase.

Wennie Sancho, labor representative at the Western Visayas wage board, said he signed the wage order “under protest.”

Sancho said wage boards should be abolished because they have “become instruments of oppression.”

Labor groups also expressed disappointment over the failure of Mr. Aquino to mention anything about the plight of workers in his Sona last Monday.

“It appears that he has no clear legislative agenda on labor,” Sancho said. –Judy Quiros, Orlando Dinoy and Germelina Lacorte, Inquirer Mindanao; and Nestor P. Burgos Jr., Inquirer Visayas