TUCP files P136 wage hike bid

MANILA, Philippines - The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) yesterday filed a petition with the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board-National Capital Region (RTWPB-NCR), seeking a P136 increase in the daily minimum wage of workers in Metro Manila.

According to TUCP spokesperson Alan Tanjusay, the “real value” of the current P466 minimum wage has been “eroded” by 35 percent due to the “variety of inflationary factors including consumer price index and tuition fees.

The others are the recent increase in the fares of Metro Rail Transit and Light Rail Transit and the impending water and electricity rate increases.

“The real value of the current P466 minimum wage is P299 only. It cannot sustain the needs of a family. As a result, many employed workers fall through the cracks and join the growing ranks of the working poor,” he said.

Tanjusay noted the wage board should “give a ‘living’ minimum wage so that workers could cope with the rising cost of living in the metropolis.

“It has been 25 years after the last legislated wage hike through the Wage Rationalization Act of 1989, it is high time that minimum wage earners be accorded with lost value of the peso and the workers’ lost purchasing power,” the group added.