Labor groups ask for wage hike

LABOR groups would expect an ugly response from the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board (RTWPB) in Northern Mindanao in their petition for a P75 across-the-board wage increase aimed at “uplifting the lives of the workers.”

The RTWPB-Northern Mindanao held Thursday at a restaurant in Cagayan de Oro City a public hearing, which was attended by representatives from the tripartite group — government, labor and management sectors – and discussed, among others, the petition filed by the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP), the biggest labor organization in the country.

During the public hearing, majority of the members of the management sector was asking the wage board to “reject the petition because it’s untimely and unfortunate due to severe economic crisis, citing it also as extremely expensive.”

Some leaders from the academe would want to help the workers by suggesting a wage increase of not more than P20 and not less than P10.

But, the Associated Labor Union-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (ALU-TUCP) said “the increase is good only for buying candies.”

“You, there!” Ricardo Borja, vice president of ALU-TUCP Northern Mindanao, said, addressing to the members of the RTWPB board at the presidential table, appealed: “Don’t be so quiet. You are our only hope. The proposal from the academe is too little.”

“One more thing, please don’t use the word ‘reject’. It’s too harsh for us to hear,” he added.

The academe called it rejection in a stand that “retrenchment, losses of jobs or worse, closure of schools” if such increase is pursued.

“It’s too high,” said a representative from Liceo de Cagayan University. During his presentation, Borja itemized the basic needs, including personal use of a worker against the daily wage he earns.

Borja said if the present daily pay of a worker is P256 multiplied by 26 days, he would get a maximum of P6,656 per month.

However, he said the worker cannot take the whole amount since there are still deductions such as Social Security System, Pag-ibig premiums, withholding tax or loans.

“More or less, the workers get P1,000 per month. How is it possible for a worker to live a descent life with that?” he said.

Borja noted that all workers in the region, regardless of whether they receive minimum wages or higher, are subject to the same prices in the market and the same increases in prices of commodities.

“If wages will remain stagnant, then more workers will certainly slide to poverty and those who are in the middle class will become the newly poor,” he said.

He claimed that TUCP is just fighting for simple decency and fairness.

Alan Macaraya, RTWPB-Northern Mindanao chairperson, said the wage board had already approved and implemented 14 wage orders for the past years.

However, he said the labor groups claimed that “it’s been two years now that no wage increase is done.”

The current daily minimum wage in Northern Mindanao is P256 making it P331 should RTWPB approve the P75 petition.

The last wage hike was approved in June 2008.

Macaraya said the wage board will consider the liabilities of the business sector these days if their capacity avails.

“It’s not that the RTWPB is doing nothing. It’s an unfounded statement. This is not just the right timing. Let’s allow the situation to stabilize,” he said, referring to the series of brownouts that caused several negative outputs for the business sector especially those that depend on electricity.

The RTWPB has 30 days to deliberate with the members of the board and decide on the petition based on the stand of the tripartite groups’ actual consultations and public hearing. (Loui S. Maliza)