House approves on final reading bill granting P125 wage hike

The House of Representatives approved on third and final reading on Wednesday night a bill granting a P125 increase in workers’ daily wage.

Majority Leader Prospero Nograles told reporters yesterday that the approval of the salary increase is a victory for workers and their representatives in Congress who have been lobbying for it since the 11th Congress in 1998.

He said the P125 would be given in three installments over a three-year period: P45 on the first year, P40 on the second year and P40 on the third.

Nograles said whatever adjustments the regional wage boards have already given workers would be deducted from the legislated wake hike.

"If a wage board, for instance, has given P30, then the increase for the first year will only be P15," he added.

Nograles, who was a guest at a news forum at the Serye Café in Quezon City, revealed that they purposely delayed third and final-reading approval of the wage bill because they waited for five months for employers to communicate to House leaders their stand on the measure.

"We approved this on second reading in June or July. But Zamboanga del Norte Rep. Roseller Barinaga, labor committee chairman, informed me that management representatives boycotted all hearings conducted by his committee. So we decided to wait for them to communicate with us," he said.

Nograles said no employer or management representative "has written us or talked to us during the five-month or six-month waiting period."

"We took that to mean that they accept the P125 increase in the daily wage spread over three years," he added.

Employers had warned that a legislated wage adjustment could drive small and medium-scale businesses to close shop, resulting in more joblessness.

Businessmen claimed a new legislated wage would trigger mass closure of many companies nationwide.

The Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP) has said 90 percent of firms in the country are small and medium enterprises that could not afford such a high increase in wages.

On the other hand, organized labor representatives said the increase that would be given in installments over three years is just enough to adjust wages for inflation.

At the end of the day, workers really get nothing as high consumer prices would wipe out their wage increase, they said.

Militant labor groups also welcomed the passage of the new legislated wage measure.

Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) and Alliance of Progressive Labor (APL) said the approval of Congress is a "postive development" in the workers’ long time fight for higher wages.

"While we believe that the House leadership passed the measure as part of the intramurals with the Senate and part of House’s effort to prop up its image ..., we still welcome this as a positive development," APL secretary general Josua Mata said.

Both militant labor groups has called on the Senate to give labor a happy New Year by not derailing the legislated wage and support the workers’ demand for salary hike.

The Senate has to enact a concurrent bill before the new legislated wage measure is brought to the bicameral committee for approval.— With Mayen Jaymalin