More workers paid above poverty threshold — DOLE

MANILA, Philippines - More workers are now receiving wages above poverty threshold, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) said yesterday.

Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz said out of the 137 minimum wage rates nationwide, only five remains below the poverty threshold and all these will be closed by 2016.

“In fact, by the end of 2015, there will be only one minimum wage rate below the poverty threshold,” Baldoz added.

At the start of the Aquino administration in 2010, 30 out of the 137 minimum wage rates were lower than the poverty threshold.

According to Baldoz, the government has succeeded closing the gap between the minimum wage and poverty threshold with the implementation of the Two-Tiered Wage System (TTWS).

The TTWS is a wage reform where the first tier is the mandated minimum wage or floor wage set by regional wage boards while the other tier is the non-mandatory component that provides workers’ pay increases and benefits based on productivity-based formulas.

“The productivity-based pay is regarded as the more appropriate mechanism of rewarding workers’ productivity as their progressive contribution to enterprise growth and competitiveness,” Baldoz explained.

Baldoz said various regional wage boards have already issued advisories guiding employers and workers in the implementation of the productivity-based pay hike. Since the two-tier wage system was implemented in 2014, the DOLE has provided technical assistance to 103,896 workers.

The DOLE also said nine million victims of disasters and other disadvantaged persons were also provided short-term jobs for the past four years under the Aquino government.

About 8.6 million disadvantaged people likewise  benefited from the Community-Based Employment Program (CBEP) from 2011 to 2014.

Baldoz said the number of CBEP beneficiaries continues to increase since Aquino assumed the presidency.

In the first year of CBEP revival, the program generated 1.24 million  short-term jobs and another 2.32 million the following year.

Last year, the CBEP generated 3.05 million short-term jobs, up from the 1.99 million short-term jobs created in 2013.

DOLE revived the program in order to provide emergency employment or alternative sources of income to disadvantaged workers, including disaster victims.

Of the total short-term CBEP jobs, 3.53 million jobs were generated by infrastructure projects of the government while 5.07 million jobs were created by 74 non-infrastructure projects and programs of 21 government agencies.

However, workers said there’s stll much to be done to improve salaries and working conditions.

“We do not contest the growth the country has achieved. But the question is on how much share workers have in the fruits of this growth?” the Federation of Free Workers (FFW) pointed out.

FFW said Pres. Aquino still has time to prioritize the  passage of pro-labor measures, including the Security of Tenure Bill that seeks to end contractualization of labor.

It said workers are incorrectly compensated and without social protection.

According to the FFW, the Aquino government succeeded in ratifying ILO Convention on Decent Work for Domestic Workers and the ILO Maritime Labor Convention as well as the passage of the  Kasambahay Law.