MANILA, Philippines — Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri said Wednesday he is open to amend his P150 across-the-board minimum wage hike proposal to allow for a “graduated” implementation of this for micro, small and medium enterprises.
Zubiri explained at the Kapihan sa Manila Bay news forum that under this scheme, which he said was suggested by Senate labor panel chairperson Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, businesses categorized as MSMEs will be raise the minimum wage at a lower rate compared to large corporations.
“As principal author of the legislated wage hike bill, we are open to graduated legislated wage hike for micro, small and medium enterprises. MSMEs will have a lower hike,” Zubiri said partly in Filipino.
By Zubiri’s computation, a company with 1,000 employees that will implement the full P150 minimum wage hike, as proposed in his Senate Bill 2002, will be spending an additional P39.6 million a year.
He said large corporations are better equipped than MSMEs to handle this as these companies have supposedly recovered from the economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“If a company earns billions a year, can’t they not afford to make that little drop in the bucket sacrifice for their workers?” Zubiri said.
“Our appeal to them is for them to share this to their workers,” he added, raising the “pro-business” legislation that Congress previously passed which includes corporate tax cuts.
Labor Secretary Bienvenido Laguesma aired concerns over Zubiri’s original proposal for an across-the-board legislated wage hike, including its potential effects on collective bargaining agreements of workers organized under unions.
Laguesma stressed at a Kapihan sa Manila Bay session earlier in the day that policies must strike a balance between workers and employers
“The objectives of the proposed law are good,” he said in Filipino. “But will this help to project the image of the Philippines as a good haven and destination for investments that will not leave workers and their concerns behind?”