MANILA, Philippines — Regional wage boards are expected to decide next month on calls for wage hikes in the face of steadily rising costs of basic goods, labor chief Silvestre Bello III said yesterday.
Bello said President Duterte has instructed him to order the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Boards (RTWPBs) to study the possibility of raising the daily minimum wage in their respective regions.
“Actually, the RTWPBs meet once a year to see if there’s a need to adjust (the minimum wage). But in case of a supervening event that may require immediate action, you can activate the regional wage boards,” Bello told reporters at the Senate.
He said he and officials of concerned agencies like the departments of finance, trade and industry, National Economic and Development Authority, Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board will hold a meeting with labor groups that are demanding a P750 minimum wage.
Bello, however, said the amount was too high and if granted might force the closure of many businesses.
“It is Congress that can fix the national minimum wage,” Bello pointed out.
Sens. Grace Poe and Joseph Victor Ejercito, in separate interviews, said there is a need to help workers cope with the rising inflation but a legislated wage increase must be carefully studied.
In separate statements, meanwhile, labor groups said a P750 national minimum wage is possible and even necessary.
The Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) and the Partido Manggagawa (PM) said the passage of the National Minimum Wage (NMW) Bill would make the implementation of a national minimum wage legally possible.
KMU said the NMW bill filed by the Makabayan bloc with the House of Representatives would set the stage for the abolition of the “anti-worker and irrational” regional wage system.
“Not only is it a legal possibility, it is a moral necessity. A P750 NMW would close the gap between the minimum wage and the living wage at a time when the costs of basic goods are higher than ever, especially with the railroaded and burdensome Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) law,” KMU pointed out.
PM expressed support for the abolition of regional wage boards and the formation of a wage-fixing mechanism that satisfies the constitutional mandate of granting workers a living wage.
According to PM, the continued existence of a mechanism that fixes the minimum wage rates by regions renders futile the demand for higher wages to cope with the skyrocketing cost of living caused by the TRAIN law and global spike in prices of oil products.
“Indeed wage increases would affect profit margins but they will not make employers poor,” PM said.
Increasing wages, PM said, affects profit in the short term, but sustains the economy that employers profit from in the long term.
The Associated Labor Unions (ALU) also gave its full backing for the proposed National Minimum Wage Bill.
“We are supporting the measure because workers and their families are in desperate need of a steady and additional wage increase,” ALU spokesman Alan Tanjusay said.
“We urge employers and business owners to listen to the poor’s appeal for equality and do not disrespect their struggle for better lives,” Tanjusay said.
Wage hike now
Joining calls for higher wages is Manila Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo. “I support the workers asking for a wage increase. The TRAIN law makes life harder for the workers and the ordinary people. The TRAIN law should be junked and changed for more equitable tax law,” said Pabillo.
Rep. Michael Romero of 1-Pacman party-list said increasing the monthly cash subsidy for poor families to P700 from P200 would greatly help cushion the impact of TRAIN.
Romero is also pushing for a P15-increase in the minimum daily wage and a one-time additional P16,500 tax exemption for all workers.
“The macroeconomic situation we are in right now calls for circumspection and calibrated response because overreaction and under-reaction can both lead to adverse results. I am proposing a combination of responses,” Romero said.
“The combination of these measures would be more than enough to make up for the purchasing power lost from last January 2017 to May 2018. This way, government and employers share the burden. This is doable,” Romero said.
Explaining how he arrived at his “combo package,” he said based on official government data, the peso has lost 5.86 percent (rounded off to six percent) of its value since January 2017.
“This means the P100 of January last year can buy only P94 worth. In other words, P6 was lost. To further illustrate, the minimum daily wage of P512 per day in Metro Manila is now worth only P481. The value lost is P31 per day. Multiplying that roughly by 30 days, the monthly value lost is P930,” he said.
He added that workers “are feeling the pain of P930 of lost purchasing power of their minimum monthly wages.” – With Christina Mendez, Evelyn Macairan, Jess Diaz, Helen Flores, Janvic Mateo