Substantial wage hike unlikely, labor admits

LABOR groups sought President Rodrigo Duterte’s intervention for a “substantial” wage increase for some 4 million wage earners in Metro Manila, after a consultation on Monday with the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board-National Capital Region (RTWPB-NCR).

Representatives of the Associated Labor Unions-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (ALU-TUCP) submitted during the meeting a supplementary position paper amending its original P320 daily wage hike petition filed in June 2018 to P334 a day.

ALU-TUCP Vice President Louie Corral admitted that the petition for a substantial wage increase was unlikely to be granted, saying that “the NCR regional wage boards were just being polite, perfunctory and routine and just wanted to get over it.”

“It looks like the NCR wage board is not sure about its full mandate. These are times of economic hardship and difficulty for workers in a supposedly growing economy. We fear that what we encountered today are wage board members who don’t want to take real responsibility and make the hard decisions for fairness and decency,” Corral said.

Amid rising prices of goods and cost of services, the President should intervene in the wage issue, he said, adding it might be mishandled and result in a backlash against the Duterte government.

“We therefore call on the President to lead from the front on the wage petition issue. Workers are already barely surviving on their daily minimum wages,” Corral said.

Corral claimed that economic managers were pre-empting the wage board deliberations and misleading the President by saying that a substantial wage increase would be inflationary.

Inflation, however, was caused by profiteers and cartels in electricity, petroleum and rice, as well as the excise tax and value-added tax on power and oil, he said.

Metro Manila workers recieve P512 minimum wage a day. The real value or purchasing power of the minimum wage, however, has fallen to P340 a day, the group said.

The last wage increase, amounting to P21 per day, was granted to minimum-wage earners in Metro Manila on Oct. 5, 2017, out of the original petition of P184 per day.

It brought the daily minimum wage rate in the private sector to P512 from P491.

ALU-TUCP has also sought from the government a P500 monthly grocery subsidy for minimum-wage earners to help them cope with rising inflation and eroding wages.

Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello 3rd said he had recommended a P200 subsidy to the President, subject to the approval of the Departments of Finance and of Budget and Management. - By WILLIAM DEPASUPIL, TMT

Govt urged to prepare contingency plans for Pinoys in Greece

A labor group on Tuesday urged the government to prepare contingency plans for Filipinos who may be affected by Greece's economic crisis, less than a week after the debt-ridden European nation voted no to bailout reform proposals.

"The current events had already resulted in a major decline in the service and tourism industry—hotels, restaurants, cruise ships— where majority of Filipino OFWs are employed," said Louie Corral, executive director of the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines-Nagkaisa (TUCP-Nagkaisa), in a statement.

"Clearly, cash will be tight for Greeks and many do not even know where their next paycheck will come from. What more for our OFWs?" Corral added.

Filipinos were unable to remit their money home last week after Greek banks limited their activities due to capital control. Greek nationals were also limited to €60 per ATM withdrawal.

Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz said on Monday that Filipinos were secure in their jobs despite the economic crisis and that they may still find jobs in other countries should they need new employment.

Despite this, TUCP-Nagkaisa spokesperson Alan Tanjusay called on the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) and the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to create contingency plans to support OFW's to relieve the impact the Greek financial crisis may have on them.

DFA spokesperson Charles Jose said the government is now studying the effects of the Greek referendum on OFW prospects and that it has already advised Filipinos in Greece to prepare for any eventuality.

There is an estimated 61,500 Filipino workers in Greece. Of this, 11,500, mostly domestic helpers, are land-based, while 60,000 are seafarers.

Majority of Greeks voted against an international bailout offer on Sunday, in a move opposition members warned could result in Greece being booted out of the Eurozone. —Rie Takumi/KBK, GMA News

TUCP submits May 1 agenda

The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines-Nagkaisa submitted to Malacañang its proposed discount card and unemployment insurance programs for minimum-waged workers for approval of President Aquino during the traditional Labor Day breakfast with labor groups in the palace on May 1, a press release from the TUCP said.

The group also proposed to Aquino the approval of a majority coconut-farmer administered trust fund to ensure that the proceeds of the P77 billion coco levy are used to promote jobs in the coconut industry and to set up coco-industrial hubs, ensure the completion of CARP with respect to lands under current Notice of Coverage;

Assist the peasant farmers through appropriate support measures and financing including trainings, appropriate technology, and easy-term credit; a return of the subsidy for MRT and LRT users to cushion rising costs for ordinary workers; and pass the Freedom of Information law, the press release said.

The measure, under the proposed Labor Enhancement Assistance Program will assist and empower the basic sectors, include an unemployment insurance policy for the 3.4 million minimum wage earners providing three months of minimum wage salary coverage in cases of retrenchment and a minimum discount card that serves as a voucher or CCT-like program for minimum wage employees to give them a monthly discount on tuition fees, purchase of rice, basic food commodities, medicines worth P2,000, it said.

The March 1 to 7 Pulse Asia Survey on urgent national concerns showed that 4 of the top 5 concerns relate to the daily survival needs of ordinary Filipinos. It showed 46 percent are crying out at inflation, 44 percent have said salaries are too small to cover daily expenses and another 34 percent said there are no decent jobs, the press release added.

TUCP-Nagkaisa executive director Louie Corral said they told Aquino to tap the 2014 P300B excess funds as reported last week by National Economic Development Authority chief Arsenio Balisacan as possible source of the proposed program, the press release added. - The Visayan Daily Star

TUCP seeks Labor Day breaks for PH workers

The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP)-Nagkaisa has submitted to the government its proposed discount-card and unemployment-insurance programs for minimum-wage workers for approval by President Benigno Aquino 3rd during the traditional Labor Day breakfast with labor groups to be hosted by Aquino in Malacañang on May 1.

“We have submitted to President Aquino our agenda on the May 1 breakfast meeting agenda. These are what we believe as amelioration programs aimed at empowering workers to cope with rising cost of living,” Gerard Seno, the group’s executive vice president said over the weekend.

The group had also proposed to Aquino to approve a majority coconut-farmer administered trust fund to ensure that proceeds from the P77-billion coconut levy fund are used to promote jobs in the coconut industry and set up coco-industrial hubs; ensure completion of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program with respect to lands under current notice of coverage; assist farmers through appropriate support measures and financing including training, appropriate technology and easy-term credit; return of subsidy for Metro rail Transit 3 and Light Rail Transit 1 and LRT 2 users to cushion rising costs for ordinary workers; and pass the Freedom of Information bill.

The Labor Enhancement Assistance Program seeks an unemployment insurance policy for the 3.4 million minimum wage earners, providing them three months of minimum wage salary coverage in cases of retrenchment; and a minimum discount card that serves as a voucher for minimum wage employees, giving them a monthly discount of P2,000 on tuition, purchase of rice, basic food commodities and medicines.

On March 1 to 7, a Pulse Asia survey on urgent national concerns showed that 4 of the top 5 concerns relate to daily survival needs of ordinary Filipinos. It found that 46 percent cried out at inflation, 44 percent said salaries are too small to cover daily expenses and 34 percent said there are no decent jobs.

On March 18, the wage board approved a P15-increase in the minimum wage in Metro Manila as against the TUCP-Nagkaisa petition of P136.

TUCP-Nagkaisa executive director Louie Corral said they had asked the President to tap the reported P300 billion in excess government funds in 2014 to finance the proposed unemployment insurance and the discount card programs. - by JING VILLAMENTE / The Manila Times

More brownouts in next 2 years -TUCP

Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho Petilla said rotational brownouts especially in Luzon may continue in 2015 due to electricity shortage. Photo shows dark Manila streets where power was affected following Typhoon Glenda earlier this year. AP/Aaron Favila

MANILA, Philippines — Labor group Trade Union Congress of the Philippines on Monday said it foresees more brownouts for the next two years without a concrete national strategy by the government to address a looming energy crisis.

The group said the real extent of the energy problem will kick in 2016 and beyond if Department of Energy (DOE) secretary Jericho Petilla will resort to quick fixes and expensive band-aid solutions.

Such short-term solutions the group cited as ineffective are renting power barges and generator sets, gas turbines and effect the Interruptible Load Program, or ILP.

The ILP by the DOE will allow malls to run their generator sets with consumers paying for their maintenance and operation costs.

Under these schemes, TUCP said the generating companies and their distribution utility will merrily do their supply and demand games while continuously burdening consumers with high power rates and more brownouts.

"The silence of Secretary Petilla is deafening. After his 'emergency powers' call was made, he is now backpedalling and trying to portray the problem as less than it is. Either he is the 'boy who cried wolf' or simply trying to place a band-aid fix because he was unable to make a case for surgery to the president, he clearly has not grasped the true extent of the problem," TUCP executive director Louie Corral said.

Corral warned that the ILP program is just a stopgap measure, noting that Meralco customers will now be financially obligated to cover the costs for mall owners running their generators for their own use.

It runs on the theory that by freeing Meralco to keep the lights on in other areas, businesses are doing consumers a favor, he explained.

"We are going to end up subsidizing their malls. But the 2015 power deficit is just the tip of the iceberg. The failure of both the DOE to address the policy gap now makes it inevitable that the crisis will repeat itself in 2016 and onwards," Corral said.

TUCP said the major policy gap is that government does not incentivize the entry of additional and cheaper power capacity if it continues to allow Meralco to enter 'sweetheart' bilateral contracts from their preferred suppliers which will always mean low reserves to ensure high power rates.

To bring in genuine competition and additional supply, TUCP proposes to allow enough leeway in the Electric Power Industry Reform Act for DOE to mandate all the distribution utilities such as the market-dominant Meralco to source their power supply every three years through international public bidding under the DOE and ERC.

"Our call is therefore to clip this self-serving option of their subject the choice of who will supply them to international public bidding under DOE supervision," Corral said.

By Dennis Carcamo (philstar.com)