Workers urge Roque: Check market prices

NOISE PROTEST Farmers bang empty pots during a rally in Mendiola to denounce the rapid increase in rice prices, which are now beyond the reach of poor consumers. —MARIANNE BERMUDEZ

Labor groups urged presidential spokesperson Harry Roque on Monday to go to market — a nod to a nursery rhyme — to get a sense of how Filipinos were hard-pressed in stretching their budgets amid soaring prices of basic commodities.

They issued the challenge after Roque said on Friday that while the 6.4-percent inflation rate in August was higher than usual, “it’s nothing to be worried about.”

The public may not find comfort in the Palace official’s assurance as fuel prices have increased anew, a development that can thwart efforts to tame inflation.

For the fifth week in a row, oil companies in the country increased pump prices. Prices of diesel, gasoline and kerosene went up by 65 centavos per liter starting 6 a.m. on Tuesday.

Insensitive

A moderate labor group, Sentro ng mga Nagkakaisa at Progresibong Manggagawa, said Roque’s effort to downplay the impact of the high inflation was not only antipoor but also reeked of “insensitivity.”

“The inflation rate is pushing the prices of food way beyond the capacity of the majority of poor Filipinos, whether they are employed or unemployed,” said Sentro secretary general Josua Mata.

Inflation last month was the highest in nine years. It stood at 7 percent in Metro Manila and 9 percent in Bicol.

Prices of food, especially rice, fish, meat and vegetables, and nonalcoholic beverages rose 8.5 percent.

Vegetables and fish may now be out of reach of the poor because their prices, according to government data, rose nationwide in August by 19.2 percent and 12.4 percent, respectively.

In the absence of subsidized rice from the state-owned National Food Authority (NFA) in many parts of the country, commercial rice is no longer affordable to many Filipinos as its prices have hit record highs.

The shortage of cheap NFA rice prompted the local governments to declare a state of calamity two weeks ago in Zamboanga City and Tawi-Tawi province, where prices of the staple rose to up to P70 and P80 a kilo, respectively.

Deep anxiety

Roque may have nothing to worry about the rising cost of living given the status and lifestyle of his family, according to the Associated Labor Unions-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (ALU-TUCP).

“But in the case of millions of poor Filipinos already deep in poverty, this current inflation is a cause of depression and deep anxiety for them,’’ said ALU-TUCP spokesperson Alan Tanjusay.

Tanjusay said power and high-handedness might have gone into the head of Roque “that he had lost touch of what makes poor people sing.”

Nagkaisa labor coalition spokesperson Rene Magtubo said Filipinos “have every [reason] to worry.”

“Is he living on another planet?” Magtubo said, referring to the presidential spokesperson. “It’s very difficult now to fit our low wages with the continued increase in the price of basic commodities.”

As Filipinos become increasingly food insecure, the three labor groups called on President Duterte to sack his economic managers, as well as Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol and NFA Administrator Jason Aquino.

“Their incompetence is clearly part of the problem,” Mata said.

Price rigging, hoarding

In the House of Representatives, Majority Leader Rolando Andaya Jr. urged the National Price Coordinating Council to look into reports that some unscrupulous individuals may be involved in price manipulation and “widespread hoarding.”

“In some places, inflation is higher than the national average. Rice and gas prices have shot through the roof in many provinces where the cost of transporting them is expensive,” the Camarines Sur lawmaker said in a statement.

Besides a depleted NFA buffer stock and hoarding, rising fuel prices, weakening of the peso, low supply of certain commodities and the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) Act were blamed for the surging cost of living.

TRAIN impact

The TRAIN law, which took effect on Jan. 1, jacked up or slapped new taxes on goods, such as oil, cigarettes, sugary drinks and vehicles, to compensate for raising the cap on tax-exempt personal income to an annual pay of P250,000.

Prices of diesel have gone up 25 times this year but have gone down 11 times for a net increase of P11.80 per liter, according to the Department of Energy.

Prices of gasoline have risen 26 times but have fallen 10 times for a net increase of P11.47.

Seeking to ease fears that inflation might worsen in the coming months, Deputy Speaker Raneo Abu said on Monday that rising prices were just a “birth pain” of the TRAIN law,

“Like in the delivery of a baby, we will all feel happiness after the child’s birth,” the Batangas lawmaker said at a news briefing. “As they say, we should relax for now. We will eventually feel its gains.”

Half cup of rice

Ako Bicol Rep. Rodel Batocabe said the TRAIN law should not be blamed for the high inflation.

Batocabe said the people had been complaining about the rising prices of goods because “they were used” to the low level of inflation during the Aquino administration.

“Maybe we should tighten our belts some more,” he said. “We should also stop wasting rice. If you cannot finish a cup of rice, then just buy half a cup instead.” -
By: Jovic Yee, Marlon Ramos, Ronnel W. Domingo - @inquirerdotnet

Traders buck wage increase

Chambers of commerce in Central Visayas yesterday warned that some businesses might close shop, contributing to a high unemployment rate, if the daily minimum wage in the region is increased.

“The Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry is not against the wage increase because we recognize that human capital is one of the most valuable capital of the enterprise. However we don’t have the prevailing economic condition of the region in general and of Cebu in particular to support an increase as of this moment,” said Benjamin Avila, CCCI vice president.

Joy Chan, Siquijor Chamber of Commerce and Industry president, pushed for an exemption from any increase.

Manolet Dinsay, who represented the Bohol Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said businesses in Bohol are still trying to recover from the devastating impact of the 7.2-magnitude quake in 2013.

They presented their position paper on the proposed wage increase during the public hearing yesterday.

Two labor groups have filed a petition asking for an across-the-board increase. The Cebu Labor Coalition sought for an increase of P145 per day while the Associated Labor Union-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (ALU-TUCP) is asking for a P92 increase per day.

The current minimum wage in Central Visayas ranges from P275 to P340. - Fe Marie Dumaboc @cebudailynews

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

Think tank urges gov’t to relax wage rules

Applicants look at the list of jobs at the Labor Day Job Fair by the Department of Labor and Employment at the SMX Convention Center in Pasay City on May 1, 2014. A government think tank on Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2014, urged policymakers to relax wage regulations and allow small and medium businesses to pay salaries below the minimum wage when they hire unskilled workers. INQUIRER PHOTO/RAFFY LERMA

BAGUIO CITY—A government think tank on Tuesday urged policymakers to relax wage regulations and allow small and medium businesses to pay salaries below the minimum wage when they hire unskilled workers.

The Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) said the imposition of a minimum wage had worsened unemployment, a conclusion reached by its labor policy analysis of Philippine job expansion and development.

The unemployment rate in the country stands at 7 percent.

Dr. Aniceto Orbeta Jr., PIDS senior research fellow who participated in the study, said the agency was tasked to examine labor policies, which he described as “tools [that] are not working.”

The policy changes that PIDS is recommending should help reduce poverty, he said, by increasing the chances of poor unskilled workers to land jobs.

“For them, this is a matter of survival,” Orbeta said.

He said, however, that PIDS has yet to study the impact of a flexible or diminished wage regulation on the country’s commitment to international labor standards.

Asean integration

PIDS also needs to see whether its proposals and presumptions about the labor market will remain applicable when the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) become an integrated market next year, he said.

Integration may allow more Filipinos to leave for jobs in Southeast Asian countries once border regulations are lifted and uniform Asean work and skills standards are applied, said Myrna Pablo, Cordillera regional director of the Department of Trade and Industry.

The minimum wage and other labor regulations are designed to protect workers from abusive employers and to give them bargaining power when seeking better wages, Orbeta said.

But citing the 2007 minimum wage increase as an example, he said the PIDS labor policy analysis found that the rise reduced the probability of an employee retaining his job or an applicant landing a job by 8 percent to 22 percent that year.

Employers end up hiring veteran workers instead of fresh graduates, who now compose the bulk of the unemployed work force, Orbeta said.

Consequently, he said, a typical household income is also reduced when at least one member of the family, who is eligible for employment, ends up jobless due to the restricted hiring opportunities.

The wage increase has little impact on big businesses, but has been detrimental to smaller businesses with 10 employees or fewer, Orbeta said.

A mandated minimum wage “hurts the employment probability of the young, female and inexperienced workers most,” he said, so employers must be allowed “to hire low-skilled and poor workers who want to voluntarily opt out of the mandatory minimum wage norm.”

He said these workers could be supported by special measures to improve the value of their smaller income, including adjustments in tax rates or other ways that would increase their pay.

Workers’ protection

Alan Tanjusay, a spokesman for the TUCP, said the minimum wage was the minimum standard to protect workers’ interests and improve the quality of labor.

“If there is no minimum wage, workers will be very vulnerable to abuse and oppression,” Tanjusay said. “There has to be a standard such as the minimum wage. Otherwise, we will revert to the age of slavery.”

Another labor group criticized the PIDS study as an “alibi for the government and employers to reduce wages further” and as a “guise for contractualization.”

“The present minimum wage levels are already below living standards, according to the [National Economic and Development Authority] and yet they want to suppress it further,” said Gie Relova of Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino.

“Our experience shows that during wage increase deliberations, government and employer representatives gang up on the labor representative. Never has the government representative sided with the labor sector,” Relova said.

That, Herrera said, is “normally the case, because democracy works through pressure and the greater pressure is exerted by business.”

PIDS’ views not new

Julius Cainglet, assistant vice president for research, communication, networking and project development of the Federation of Free Workers (FFW), said PIDS’ views were not new.

“The World Bank and the Asian Development Bank have been saying that for years. The think tank’s research seems wanting as it failed to consider the real state of workers,” Cainglet said in a text message.

“The minimum wage is but a meager social protection for workers. Present minimum wage rates in Metro Manila could not even cover half the required income needed to afford your family a decent life. Besides, the minimum wage is much smaller in the provinces where a lot of investors set up manufacturing plants,” he said.

“Abolishing the minimum wage would work only if workers have a voice, that is if the majority of them are unionized. We know how employers do everything to bust unions. Without a minimum wage to bank on and a union to fight for their rights to just wages, benefits and better working conditions, the government is opening the floodgates for even more exploitation of workers. We will end up with workers receiving alms and getting employed for no more than five months,” he said.

High cost of doing business

“What is pushing down employment is the high cost of doing business. For one, the country’s power rates are the highest in Asia. Add the fact that there are mounting fees, permits and impossible requirements when applying for a new business or renewing permits for the same. It is a nightmare, in fact,” Cainglet said.

“The FFW believes that this is what curtails employment more and not the minimum wage. We would want to abolish the wage boards for the right reasons like for being insensitive to the needs of workers. But removing the minimum wage right now will only deprive workers even more of their just share in the country’s economic growth,” he said.

Roger Soluta, secretary general of Kilusang Mayo Uno, said PIDS economists were serving the interests of foreign capitalists in blaming the minimum wage for the low employment rate.

“It’s irritating that to justify doing away with the minimum wage, they would use that argument,” Soluta said.– By Vincent Cabreza, Erika Sauler and Tina G. Santos Inquirer

Wage board optimistic on P89 wage hike appeal in Northern Mindanao

AFTER completing three provincial wage consultations last month, the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board in Northern Mindanao (RTWPB) is hopeful for the immediate deliberation of the P89 wage increase petition filed by the Associated Labor Union-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (ALU-TUCP) on July 16, 2014.

Lawyer Gretchen Lamayon, RTWPB-10 information officer, said the wage board has been doing its best to cap off remaining consultations in Lanao del Norte and Misamis Occidental by the end of September.

Lamayon, however, admitted to Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro that various reactions from the workers and employers sectors are obstacles needed to be overcome to come up with a fast resolution.

"So far, from the three provinces, some agreed with the increase. There were some who said it has to be reduced. And, of course, there were those who said P89 is too much," she said Tuesday.

Wage consultations have already been conducted in the provinces of Camiguin, Misamis Oriental, and Bukidnon in August 2014.

Lamayon said the executive board of the RTWPB-10 needs more time to deliberate to produce an outcome that is favorable to all concerned sectors.

The wage board also has several considerations in deliberating the petition, which include the social economic conditions of the employers, she noted.

The labor union is optimistic the RTWPB will support the daily minimum wage increase petition even if results of the first round of deliberation have not been disclosed to the public yet.

If approved, the daily minimum wage in the region will become P395 for agricultural and non-agricultural workers.

The board discussions will be attended by the heads of the region's Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and National Economic and Development Authority (Neda), two representatives from the Department of Labor and Employment (Dole), and two representatives from the private sector.

In a petition passed to RTWPB-10, the ALU-TUCP justified the requested increase as beneficial to the working population amid the increasing cost of standard of living.

"The P89 daily increase is essential if workers are to cope with the increasing prices of commodities and cost of living, if they are to meet the basic needs of their families, even if only partial, and if the country gives meaning and substance to the policy of equitable distribution of income and wealth. The increase, small as it is, has been overtaken by increases in power and water rates, in health and education costs, the prices of oil and its products, LPG, and basic goods and services," the petition read.

"Prices of goods and services in the following months are also expected to rise by at least 5 percent which would require an additional P21.42 adjustment in wages considering the increasing prices of goods and services especially power rates because of the current power shortage in Mindanao. Also, the daily take home pay of wage earners is lower due to legally mandated deductions such as SSS, PhilHealth and Pag-Ibig contributions and income tax," it added.

Wildon Barros, Kilusang Mayo Uno-northern Mindanao chairperson, told this paper that although they are pushing for the P125 minimum wage across the board since last year, they would also support ALU-TUCP's endeavor.

"We still want the RTWPB to say yes to this because it is for the benefit of our workers at the end of the day," Barros said by phone.

On May 15, 2013, the RTWPB-10 approved the latest P306 wage increase per day from P286 for the wage earners in northern Mindanao. - By Mario C. Manlupig Jr. SunStar

Scrapping minimum wage to expose workers to abuse, virtualslavery—labor groups

AFP FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—Labor groups in the country cautioned government policy makers on Tuesday against lifting the minimum wage requirement, saying that doing so would expose workers to abuse.

Alan Tanjusay, spokesperson of the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP), said the minimum wage has been serving as the minimum standard to protect workers’ interests, and improve the quality of labor.

“If there is no minimum wage, workers will be very vulnerable to abuse and oppression,” said Tanjusay. “There has to be a standard such as the minimum wage. Otherwise, we will revert back to the age of slavery.”

Julius Cainglet, Federation of Free Workers (FFW)’s assistant vice president for Research, Communication, Networking and Project Development, on the other hand, said PIDS’ views were not new.

“The World Bank and the Asian Development Bank have been saying that for years. The think tank’s research seems wanting as it failed to consider the real state of workers,” he told the Philippine Daily Inquirer in a text message.

“The minimum wage is but a meager social protection for workers. Present minimum wage rates in Metro Manila could not even cover half the required income needed to afford your family a decent life. Besides, the minimum wage is much smaller in the provinces where a lot of investors set up manufacturing plants,” he said.

“Abolishing the minimum wage would only work if workers have a voice, that is if the majority of them are unionized. We know how employers do everything to bust unions.

Without a minimum wage to bank on and a union to fight for their rights to just wages, benefits and better working conditions, the government is opening the floodgates for even more exploitation of workers. We will end up with workers receiving alms and getting employed for no more than five months,” added Cainglet.

The FFW official urged the government to instead look at improving the environment for doing business in the country, which would significantly impact the capacity of businesses to employ more workers and pay wages.

“What is pushing down employment is the high cost of doing business. For one, the country’s power rates are the highest in Asia. Add the fact that there are mounting fees, permits and impossible requirements when applying for a new business or renewing permits for the same. It is a nightmare in fact,” said Cainglet.

“The FFW believes that this is what curtails employment more and not the minimum wage. We would want to abolish the wage boards for the right reasons like for being insensitive to the needs of workers. But removing the minimum wage right now will only deprive workers even more of their just share in the country’s economic growth,” he added. - By Tina G. Santos |Philippine Daily Inquirer

TUCP bats for P135 wage hike in Metro next month

The country’s largest labor group is considering filing a P135 wage hike in Metro Manila next month to help workers cope with the rising cost of basic commodities and services.

In a text message, Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) spokesperson Alan Tanjusay said the tentative amount was based from their assessment on the impact of the high-cost of living in the National Capital Region (NCR) to minimum wage earners.

“Among our primary considerations is the 4.9 percent inflation, which is the highest in 33 months, increase in transportation fares, food prices, and tuition of students,” Tanjusay said.

He said they will finalize the amount for their new wage petition by October during the anniversary date of the implementation of Wage Order No. NCR-18, which raised the minimum wage rates in Metro Manila to P429 to P466.

The previous wage rate in NCR was P399 to P436.

“We are preparing our wage increase petition. We are also trying to improve our lobby efforts to get a significant amount from the wage board,” Tanjusay said.

Last year, TUCP filed an P85 wage petition at the Regional Tripartite Wage and Productivity Board of the National Capital Region (RTWPB-NCR).

DoLE-NCR director and RTWPB-NCR chairperson Alex Avila said they will wait for the new wage petition before they begin processing a new wage hike in Metro Manila.

Under the wage rules, regional wage boards could only process a new wage petition after the anniversary date of its previous wage order.

“As of now, the Board has not yet received any new petition,” Avila said. - by Samuel Medenilla - Manila Bulletin