P100 daily wage hike pushed in Region 7

CEBU, Philippines — A progressive labor group has formally submitted signatures to the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board (RTWPB)-7 supporting the call for a P100 wage increase in Central Visayas, while simultaneously staging a protest at the regional office of the Department of Labor and Employment yesterday.

Members of the AMA Sugbo-KMU have gathered more than 600 signatures from the workers and their families coming from the cities of Cebu, Mandaue, and Lapu-Lapu, and some areas from the third district of the Cebu Province.

“Ang mga pirma sa pagsuporta sa P100 wage increase sa minimum wage hinanali ug gikinahanglan. Dako ang kapasidad sa mga negosyante dinhi sa Central Visayas sa paghatag sa umento sa suhulan,” said AMA Sugbo KMU Chairperson Jaime Paglinawan, in a statement.

He said that this is based on the 2020-2022 Gross Regional Domestic Product (GRDP) in Central Visayas released by the Philippines Statistics Authority depicting the products and profits made by the workers.

The 2022 GRDP amounts to P1.29 trillion, and indicated that Central Visayas is the fourth largest economy in the Philippines.

“Mismo ang data sa Annual Survey of the Philippine Business and Industries (ASPBI) nga gitan-aw sa Ibon Foundation nagpakita nga dako ang potensyal nga makahatag ang mga negosyante sa gipangayong wage increase,” he said.

Paglinawan cited data from the Ibon Foundation that a P170 across-the-board wage hike needed to recover the real value of wages will only take away about 13 percent of the employers’ profits.

The RTWPB-7 has scheduled five public hearings for the wage hike petitions filed by 20 various labor groups in Central Visayas, with the two remaining public hearings to be conducted in Bohol today and in Negros Oriental tomorrow.

Earlier, about 20 labor groups, mostly from Cebu, had filed their wage hike petitions in February and April this year.

Labor group Alyansa sa Mamumuong Kontraktwal sa Sugbo (ALSA Kontraktwal Cebu) has filed a petition for a P100 wage increase stating the dire economic crisis as valid justification for the increase.

The Partido Manggagawa-Cebu, in a joint petition with 10 other labor groups, also pushed for a P100 increase per day for the minimum wage workers in Region 7.

Eight other petitioners, in their joint petition, had filed an increase on the daily minimum wage of P292.50 among private workers and P1,000 monthly for domestic helpers or kasambahay in Central Visayas.

Last June 14, 2022, the RTWPB-7 approved a P31 daily wage hike for all the workers in the private sector and a P500 monthly increase for domestic workers in Central Visayas.

The RTWPB-7 chairperson had earlier assured workers that there will be a wage increase next month, but the amount would still have to be deliberated on. —/GAN (FREEMAN)