‘National’ floor wage?

The rounds for minimum-wage adjustments have begun, with Metro Manila, Davao, Western Visayas, North Cotabato, Caraga and the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao reportedly approaching agreements to set the minimum wage in their areas at more or less P25 higher than the current minimum. As this goes on, the National Wages and Productivity Commission (NWPC) has announced that it is looking into introducing a “national” floor wage, as it moves toward a two-tier approach to pay adjustment.

This approach aims to accomplish two things: shield vulnerable sectors from excessively low pay and encourage minimum-wage increases based on productivity. Doing so places wage-setting at the industry and enterprise levels and effectively encourages collective bargaining agreements. Reportedly, ECOP president Edgardo Lacson appears to be in agreement in principle; and former senator Ernesto Herrera, TUCP secretary-general, appears to be concerned mainly about the factors on which to base productivity. After all, it has been reported that minimum-wage hikes could be higher or lower than this floor, depending on local economic conditions and company-based performance targets.

Since the International Labor Organization (ILO) is involved in the NWPC meetings, we can reasonably anticipate, or hopefully assume, that the Decent Work Agenda would be a key driver in the process of determining at the least the considerations for setting the “national” floor wage. The Wage Indicator Foundation summarized today the core elements of Decent Work from ILO documents going as far back as 1999, as follows:

* An income that allows the working individual a good life.
* At work, everybody has an equal chance to develop himself/herself and discrimination does not occur.
* There are proper and safe circumstances.
* Trade unions are allowed a real say in work-related matters.
* The State created a social safety net for the sick, weak, elderly and for expecting women.

On the part of the Church, on May 1,2000, on the occasion of the Jubilee of Workers, Pope John Paul II issued an appeal for “a global coalition in favor of decent work,” supporting this ILO strategic agenda. In Caritas in Veritate, Pope Benedict XVI has addressed the issue more forcefully: “poverty results from a violation of the dignity of human work, either because work opportunities are limited (through unemployment or underemployment), or because a low value is put on work and the rights that flow from it, especially the right to a just wage and to the personal security of the worker and his or her family. What is meant by the word “decent” in regard to work? It means:

* Work that expresses the essential dignity of every man and woman in the context of their particular society.
* Work that is freely chosen, effectively associating workers, both men and women, with the development of their community.
* Work that enables the worker to be respected and free from any form of discrimination.
* Work that makes it possible for families to meet their needs and provide schooling for their children, without the children themselves being forced into labor.
* Work that permits the workers to organize themselves freely, and to make their voices heard.
* Work that leaves enough room for rediscovering one’s roots at a personal, familial and spiritual level.
* Work that guarantees those who have retired a decent standard of living.

This Saturday, as we celebrate the Feast of St. Maximilian Kolbe, described by Pope John Paul II as the “Patron Saint of Our Difficult Century,” we hope that the rounds of consultations, dialogues, meetings and agreements regarding the two-tier approach will embrace the deeper truth that underlies decent work. After all, it is he who reminded us that, “No one in the world can change Truth: What we can do and should do is to seek truth and to serve it when we have found it. The real conflict is the inner conflict…two irreconcilable enemies at the depth of every soul: good and evil, sin and love.” –Rev. Fr. Antonio Cecilio T. Pascual / Servant Leader, Businessmirror

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