TUCP seeks P75 wage hike for Metro workers

MANILA, Philippines – The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP), the country’s largest labor group, filed a petition before the Regional Triparite Wages and Productivity Board (RTWPB) in the National Capital Region yesterday asking for a P75 across-theboard increase in the daily pay of all workers in the NCR.

“The amount is needed by all employees and workers receiving not only minimum wage, but also for those getting higher than minimum wage since they are all equally disadvantaged by” the increase in the prices of basic commodities and transport fare, TUCP spokesman Raffy Mapalo said.

He said that “to keep the wages step with price increase and improve the living conditions of workers, the board must grant a P75 increase to bring the minimum wage to P457.”

In July last year, the RTWPB-NCR granted a P22 increase, bringing the current daily minimum wage rate to P404.

National Wages and Productivity Commission (NWPC) executive director Ciriaco Lagunzad III said the workers’ demand for a salary hike can only be granted if there is a “supervening condition.”

Under the law, no wage hike petition can be heard within a year after the issuance of the last wage order, but Lagunzad said there were three instances in the past that two wage orders were issued within a year because of existing supervening conditions or “extraordinary” increase in prices of oil products, transport fare or other essential commodities.

In 2008, Lagunzad said, the wage board granted successive increase in the daily pay of minimum wage orders because of extraordinary increase in prices of petroleum products.

“That time the price of gasoline was P65 per liter. In the new petition, the board needs to study and determine whether a supervening condition exist,” he said. –Mayen Jaymalin (The Philippine Star)