THE country’s biggest labor group is filing petitions for a wage increase before various regional wage boards across the country amid the rise in prices of food and services brought about by the implementation of the second tranche of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) Law, which imposed additional excise tax on fuel.
The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) said on Tuesday that based on its computation, it may petition for a minimum of P313 to a maximum of P355 wage increase based on the current prices of commodities and services despite strong opposition from employers and business groups.
TUCP President Raymond Mendoza said the group was monitoring the movement of prices of goods and services following adjustments in the prices of diesel and gasoline effective earlier on Tuesday.
“We will be citing supervening conditions in filing the petitions. We are also going to test once again the capacity of the wage boards to remain relevant with its mandate to raise the minimum wage to an amount that can ably support a family,” Mendoza said.
He said there was a strong clamor from its members and social media netizens for TUCP to push for the abolition of differentiated wage rates and put up a single wage setting body that would periodically adjust the uniform minimum wage rate for all workers across-the-board nationwide using social and economic data in determining the amount.
All 17 wage boards in different regions have adjusted the minimum wage rates from P8.50 to P56 daily wage increases in different periods in 2017, including Metro Manila on November 2018 with P25 daily wage hike.
The TUCP said, however, that despite the adjustments, current minimum wage levels remained inadequate for workers and their families as inflation rate still stood at a high 6.7 percent.
The group also reiterated its call to President Rodrigo Duterte to approve its proposed P500 monthly food voucher subsidy to all minimum wage earners as the pay increases approved by businesses and employers nationwide remained inadequate to cope with extraordinary rise in the prices of goods and services.
Under the proposal submitted to Duterte on April 2017, labor urged government to address continuing inflationary impacts by providing a P500 monthly food voucher, non-transferable subsidy initially to an estimated 4 million minimum wage workers.
Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello 3rd only endorsed P200 to the President in June this year and was still pending approval by the Departments of Budget and Management and of Finance. - WILLIAM B. DEPASUPIL
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