Labor union to wage board, employers: Try living on P357 a day

The P491 minimum wage in Metro Manila has a real value of only P357, based on National Wages and Productivity Commission data

SEEKING JOBS. Unemployed Filipinos at a job fair. Rappler file photo

MANILA, Philippines – Labor unions expressed their growing frustration to the wage-setting board as they again appealed for a minimum wage hike during a public consultation on Thursday, July 6.

Associated Labor Unions (ALU) spokesperson Alan Tanjusay even posed a challenge to members of the tripartite wage board of the National Capital Region (NCR), which is composed of representatives from the labor sector, employers, and the government.

In presenting ALU's proposal, Tanjusay said they are just asking the tripartite wage board to restore the purchasing value of the P491 minimum wage. Data from the National Wages and Productivity Commission (NWPC) show it currently has a real value of P357.

"Imagine P357, pagkakasyahin mo. Hinahamon ko po ang miyembro ng wage board, subukan po kaya natin na i-challenge na mabuhay ng P357 sa isang araw," Tanjusay told the board.

(Imagine you'll have to budget P357. I challenge the members of the wage board, try living on P357 a day.)

He stressed that this amount is not only for a single person but for a family of 5 people.

"How will this affect our workers? They'll be forced to buy the cheapest food for their family. That means less nutritious food for you and your family," he added in Filipino. (READ: Is the minimum wage enough for a day's worth of nutritious meals?)

Petitions

ALU is seeking a P184 across-the-board wage hike nationwide. Other groups such as the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) are asking for a P259 increase while the Association of Minimum Wage Earners and Advocates (AMWEA) wants the minimum wage to be raised to P1,200 in 4 tranches.

"This wage increase petition, it's the only hope of the workers to augment their earnings," said TUCP's Raffy Mapalo.

While the wage board secretariat said the Philippines has the highest minimum wage among its Southeast Asian counterparts, Mapalo argued that this information should be assessed vis-à-vis the real needs of workers.

"Let us look beyond the wage but the prices of commodities in each country and the productivity of the Filipino workers," he said.

All 3 groups lamented that previous increases have ranged from just P10 to P15.

Tanjusay said ALU filed its petition "in protest," accusing the board of not being responsive to workers' needs. He stressed their call to abolish the regional wage-setting scheme and establish a national board to set a uniform wage. (READ: Is it time for a national minimum wage?)

Management side

Board Chairperson Johnson Cañete said they will be taking note of the sentiments of the workers, but would still have to consult with other stakeholders before deciding. The board will have a consultation with employers on July 14 and another dialogue with the labor groups on July 27.

"We will also be looking into how much can be given," Cañete told Rappler in an interview after the consultation. "The employers should be able to afford the petition of the workers. We should balance the interests."

The board's employer representative Vicente Leogardo Jr, who is also the director-general of the Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP), said granting the wage hike would afftect micro, small, and medium enterprises the most, which comprise 91% of businesses in the country.

Meanwhile, for ECOP president Donald Dee, both employers and workers should think outside the box in resolving the wage issue.

Dee told Rappler that he has crafted a "social contract" with labor groups that would "increase the purchasing power of the peso."

The contract includes a commitment to construct a dormitory for workers paid for by employers so they don't have to spend on daily transportation. They will also be jointly asking the government to provide free Wi-Fi and equalize the power rates of factories inside and outside special economic zones.

"In a month or so we will be signing a new social contract with the labor groups... We will be submitting to the government, part of our commitment voluntarily working together. We are proposing to the government, we're doing these things but they must act," said Dee.

While amenable to this agreement, ALU-TUCP is still banking on the approval of their proposal to provide a P500 subsidy to minimum wage earners.

Tanjusay said President Rodrigo Duterte has agreed to this scheme. The workers have already submitted a proposal to the Department of Budget and Management on how this can be operationalized. – Rappler.com

Labor group mocks govt’s work scheme

THE labor group Associated Labor Unions-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (ALU-TUCP) mocked the government's much ballyhooed effort in regularizing 50,000 contractual workers since July last year.

It said the government failed to assist the five percent of the  25 to 30-million contractual workers in the country to become regular workers.

The ALU-TUCP said workers in the manufacturing, services and agricultural sectors nationwide were still employed under the contractualized work arrangement without security of tenure, deprived of the right to form unions, and unable to claim lawful benefits accorded to directly hired, regular workers.

"President Rodrigo Duterte should act on his campaign promise to eliminate the rampant temporary contractualized work arrangement and make an impact on the lives of workers by raising the level of the daily minimum pay," the labor group said.

"Mr. Duterte had asked us on May 1 Labor day dialogue with labor groups to give him time on the issue of contractualization. We are calling on him to make up his mind now because millions of contractual workers are on the line, waiting and hoping to fulfill his promise to end it," ALU-TUCP spokesman Alan Tanjusay said.

The ALU-TUCP also urged Duterte to make a meaningful impact in the lives of workers by raising the level of the daily minimum wage and enforce policies toward lowering the rising cost of living.

The labor group claimed the purchasing power of the country's highest minimum wage of P491 had eroded by 27 percent by second week of April 2017. 

The real value of Metro Manila's daily minimum wage is currently pegged at P357—excluding mandatory social insurance deductions, records from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and the National Wages and Productivity Commission show.

"No family can survive with P357 per day. Mr. Duterte has to directly and indirectly raise the level of workers' wages and enforce a set of policies that would lower the rising cost of living if he wants to fulfil his promise to improve the lives of the Filipinos under his presidency," Tanjusay said.

The ALU-TUCP has also submitted a proposal to Malacañang calling on Duterte to give P500 monthly cash subsidy to all minimum wage workers through cash vouchers in the purchase of basic commodities and payment of utilities. - By Vito Barcelo 

Isang Bigong Taon: A failed one year for Digong – labor groups

File photo

Contractualization did not stop; wages remained low and regionalized; the unemployment and underemployment problems continue to weigh down on a large number of Filipino workers.  "In sum, it was "Isang B(D)igong Taon" on the labor front for President Duterte's first year in office," stated various labor groups in their one year assessment of the President's performance.

It can be recalled that the President made a campaign pledge that contractualization will stop the moment he becomes the President.  He also vowed to raise wages and abolish the system of provincial rates.

"We tried to rate the President's performance as objective as we can, but the outcomes for labor over his first 365 days have been generally wanting, have given us false expectations and given us many unfulfilled promises," said the workers groups in a joint statement distributed to media during a demonstration held at the Boy Scout Circle in Timog Quezon City, Friday.

The mass action was organized by the Sentro ng mga Nagkakaisa at Progresibong Manggagawa (Sentro), Partido Manggagawa (PM), Federation of Free Workers (FFW), National Federation of Labor Unions (Naflu) and the Philippine Airlines Employees Association (Palea).  Members of the World March of Women and Ateneo University's Union of Students for the Advancement of Democracy (USAD) also joined the rally.

 

No end yet to endo

 

In a meeting on Labor Day, President Duterte asked labor groups to draft an Executive Order that would use prohibition of all forms of contractualization as a framework.  This was after the unanimous rejection of labor groups of Department Order 174 issued by Labor and Employment Sec. Silvestre Bello III sometime in March.  He also instructed the labor department to resolve with dispatch the years of dispute between PAL and PALEA on the issue of contractualization.

In response the labor groups submitted a unified draft together with the formal labor sector of the National Anti-Poverty Commission. But almost two months from its submission, the President has done no executive action to address the rampant contractualization.

 

"We have always advocated for a prohibition of all forms of contractualization and a stop to the abusive operations of manpower agencies and manpower cooperatives. The President himself at his assumption to power and in his first meeting with labor groups early this year openly expressed disgust over these as they 'abused workers,' using his words," said the groups.

 

According to labor groups, DO 174 continues to permit contractualization and allows manpower agencies and manpower cooperatives to take a cut from workers' salaries each payday.

There was also no certification issued by the President on pending anti-endo bills filed before the Congress. The PAL-PALEA dispute is not yet resolved.

 

The only token victory they got on this respect, the groups said, is the planned deputization of trade unionists as labor inspectors, the first batch of which are now undergoing training at the labor department.  

 

Freedom of Association is also one of the areas where the President has a failing mark from the groups as organizing remains extremely difficult particularly in Economic Zones as workers get harassed and get fired for trying to organize unions.

 

Wages, power, employment, OFW fees, new taxes

 

With the regional wage setting mechanism still in place, discrimination in terms of wages still persists across the country. The President said he was for a national minimum wage, but such policy pronouncement has not translated even to a working paper from DOLE that they can discuss with workers.

 

"In the meantime the real value of wages continues to drop, power rates and prices of basic goods and services continue to climb, making it more burdensome for the working class. Meanwhile, the collection of exorbitant placement and other fees for OFW have not been addressed sufficiently if at all," added the group.

In addition, the planned imposition of excise taxes on oil and the expansion of VAT coverage on goods and services under the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN), the group feared, will lead to further erosion of workers purchasing power especially those earning the minimum wage and below.

  

ILO Convention 151 ratification, the saving grace

The President, however, got a passing mark for being the first chief executive to endorse for Senate concurrence International Labor Convention 151 on Labor Relations in the Public Sector. The treaty, once ratified by the Senate, would guarantee the right to organize of public sector workers and allow them to bargain for better working conditions, among others.

Wrong war

 

Asked why the President failed to satisfy workers' clamor for change during the last 365 days, the labor groups said, "It is expected when a leader quickly descends into a wrong war that only resulted to thousands of unsolved killings.  While surveys have consistently showed that inflation, wages, and employment remain the top concerns of every Filipino." 

On Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) Package 1

Labor coalition welcomes lower tax on personal income but rejects regressive impact of excise taxes.

Workers have long been demanding for higher tax exemptions, hence, the approval by the House of Representatives of Package 1 of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) is a welcome relief.

Under the TRAIN, income lower than P250,000 per year will be tax free while higher income brackets, except for those who earn more than P5 million, will be charged a lowered tax rate of 25% from the current high of 32%.

This is surely a welcome development. But for the labor coalition Nagkaisa, the workers' gain in Personal Income Tax (PIT) will be offset in a regressive manner by the imposition of excise taxes on fuel products and the lifting of VAT exemptions in the sale of specific goods and services.

"Everyone knows, not just workers, that it will increase prices of goods and services that would affect mostly the poor and those at the lower income brackets," said Nagkaisa spokesman Renato Magtubo.

Magtubo said the TRAIN's objective of shifting the tax burden from the poor to the rich, "Seems to be scheming if not tricky as forgone revenue on the side of the government, which is equivalent to individual savings derived from lower PIT of specific income group, shall be recovered in a universal manner through excise taxes and expanded VAT."

The group explained further that the tax base can never be expanded through exemptions in PIT and corporate income, making indirect taxation through excise taxes and VAT expansion the main strategy in generating new and more revenue. "Otherwise, nobody is going to pay for the lost revenue," added Magtubo.

Under TRAIN's package 1, a P3.00-P6.00 excise taxes will be imposed per liter on fuel and P10 for locally produced sugary products while several VAT-exempt products and services will be lifted, including cooperative income exceeding the P3 million thresholds. Likewise, sale of real estate for socialized housing will now be covered by VAT.

According to the group, even the simulations made by staffs of the finance department showed the inevitable impact of increase in VAT payments by decile group – 43% for the richest 10% and 35% for the bottom 80%. Increase for the second richest 10% is 22%.

"An increase of 43 and 22 per cent respectively may mean nothing for the richest 20% who got significant savings from PIT exemptions. But a 35% increase is surely a burden for the bottom 80% who includes the majority in the formal and informal sector, employed and unemployed, of the working class. In the same manner everyone will be paying for the direct and indirect impact of excise taxes on fuel," explained Magtubo.

The labor leader added that those living in SPUG areas which rely on diesel as their single source of power will be absorbing a "minimal" impact, according to DOF. But that would mean additional P84 for those who consume 100 kWh per month and P106 for those who consume 300 kWh.

"These are the immediate impact that will hit everyone while the poor wait for the promised transfers contained in the proposed expenditure programs of the government," said Magtubo.

The group said it will intervene in the continuing deliberation of the tax package in Congress especially on the proposed lowering of income taxes for corporations from 30% to 25%.

"Our main question for this is why a tax rate on corporate income, which is supposed to be a tax on profit, is being lowered down to the same level of personal income which is a tax on labor? A uniform rate on business and personal income can never be considered progressive taxation," concludes Magtubo."




PRESS RELEASE
NAGKAISA
13 June 2017