TUCP to Noy: Raise minimium salary of workers

A labor group once again calls on the Aquino administration to raise the minimum wage of workers in the country.

MANILA, Philippines - Labor group Trade Union Congress of the Philippines-Nagkaisa (TUCP-Nagkaisa) said President Benigno Aquino III has a little to help an estimated P24.4 million poor workers whose income still cannot cope with the cost of basic goods and services.

TUCP Nagkaisa spokesperson Alan Tanjusay said he is baffled why the government remains reluctant to raise the wages of poor working people amid results of government’s Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) survey, showing big disparity between family income and barest expenditures.

The poverty threshold set by the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) for 2014 was at P8,778 a month for a family of five to survive. However, in the first semester of 2014, average incomes of poor families were short by 27 percent of the poverty threshold.

NEDA said that poverty threshold is the minimum income set by government as required to meet basic food and non-food needs for a family of five to ensure that one remains economically and socially productive.

It showed poor workers in the informal economy, estimated to be at P21 million, who received less than the mandated minimum wage, were found to earn average monthly income of measly P6,408. This means they needed P2,370 more per month to move out of poverty in that year.

"It's very alarming that a huge problem confronting workers who fell through the cracks has not been acted upon ever since. Right now, they are coping on their own, coping by the means available to them and we feel they are totally excluded from the agenda sharing the profits," TUCP-Nagkaisa spokesperson Alan Tanjusay said.

Workers in the informal economy include construction workers, farmers, vendors, jeepney, bus, tricycle, pedicab drivers, conductors, salesladies, barbers, street-sweepers and garbage collectors.

For minimum wage earners in Metro Manila, a disparity of P1,082.31 a month from the prescribed P8,778 poverty threshold amount last year.

PSA figures show the real value of P466 minimum wage for the National Capital Region (NCR) last year was P356.64 a day or P7,695.69 a month.

This year, the current value of the current highest minimum wage of P481 is only P371.64 a day or P8,176.08 a month— still a P601.92 short compared with the 2014 P8,778 threshold.

Today, TUCP-Nagkaisa estimated the mid-year poverty threshold at P9,177 a month.

Meanwhile, Gerard Seno, executive vice president of the Associated Labor Unions, said the latest ideal minimum wage should be at P1,068 a day to cover the rising costs of prices of basic food and non-food needs.

Seno said that this can be achieved through a priority legislated wage hike measure or through a uniform decision of regional wage boards.

"That is why with less than a year in office, we are still hoping President Aquino to make tough policy decisions in raising Filipino family income both at the formal and informal sector workers," Seno said. - By Dennis Carcamo (philstar.com)

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

RTWPB 7 sets 2 hearings on Cola-wage integration

THE Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board (RTWPB) 7 will conduct two public hearings this month to get the sentiment of the labor sector on the proposal to integrate the P13 cost-of-living allowance (Cola) in the basic wage.

RTWPB 7 labor sector representative Jose Tomungha said that the hearings are set on Oct. 13 in Bohol and Oct. 14 in Cebu City.

Tomungha said that RTWPB 7 will deliberate the inputs from the participants and the result of the public hearings on Oct. 15 and 21.

Tomungha said that the labor coalitions in Cebu are also now conducting research on the amount of the wage increase that could be filed by the workers in May 2015.

He said May 2015 is just seven months away that’s why it is appropriate to start the research now.

Early this year, the Associated Labor Union-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (ALU-TUCP) filed a petition for a P90 across-the-board wage increase, while the Alliance of Progressive Labor (APL) wanted an increase of P132 per day.

The regional wage board, however, only granted a P13 Cola for workers that dismayed Tomungha and other labor sector representative, lawyer Ernesto Carreon.

RTWPB 7 is co-chaired by the director of the Department of Labor and Employment 7 and the director of the Department of Trade and Industry.

The RTWPB 7 members who also voted for the Cola are the director of the National Economic and Development Authority 7 and two representatives of the management sector.

With the P13 Cola on top of the P327 basic wage, the total minimum compensation now of a minimum wage worker is P340.

The decision of RTWPB 7 was affirmed by the National Wage Commission and it took effect last March 21, 15 days after it was published in a newspaper of general circulation last March 6.

Tomungha said that unlike Cola, which can be removed from the payroll anytime, a basic pay is permanent under the labor law. - By Elias O. Baquero / SunStar