Unions push for single wage rate hike

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