TUCP petitions for P320 basic pay increase in Metro Manila

One of the country’s largest labor centers on Thursday demanded a P320 across-the-board increase in the daily minimum wage for all private sector workers in Metro Manila.

The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) said the current basic pay of P512 was not enough for a Metro Manila household with at least five members to live decently.

If approved, the petition that the TUCP filed in the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board would bring the minimum wage in the National Capital Region to P832.

This will “help restore the purchasing power of their wages, to cover the further increases in prices of basic goods and services, and to compensate their contribution to the improvement of the regional and national economy,” the group said.

TUCP, which is also a party-list group in the House of Representatives, wants the P320 adjustment in the minimum wage legislated across the board and implemented in all regions. It earlier filed a bill setting the floor pay at between P576 and P832.

Another House bill, filed by lawmakers belonging to the Makabayan bloc, sets a P750 basic wage nationwide to help workers cope with soaring prices.

Survival wage

In a statement, TUCP said its proposal for a daily wage of P832 was still a “survival wage.”

The group cited the rising costs of rice, fuel, sardines, school supplies, education, medical support, transportation, and other goods and services due to the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) Act, oil price increases and weakening of the peso.

Since Jan. 1, the TRAIN Act has raised the cap for tax-exempt income to P250,000 yearly, but it imposed an excise on products like fuel, sugar-sweetened beverages and tobacco.

Decent living

This will “help restore the purchasing power of their wages, to cover the further increases in prices of basic goods and services, and to compensate their contribution to the improvement of the regional and national economy,” the group said.

TUCP, which is also a party-list group in the House of Representatives, wants the P320 adjustment in the minimum wage legislated across the board and implemented in all regions. It earlier filed a bill setting the floor pay at between P576 and P832.

Another House bill, filed by lawmakers belonging to the Makabayan bloc, sets a P750 basic wage nationwide to help workers cope with soaring prices.

Survival wage

In a statement, TUCP said its proposal for a daily wage of P832 was still a “survival wage.”

The group cited the rising costs of rice, fuel, sardines, school supplies, education, medical support, transportation, and other goods and services due to the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) Act, oil price increases and weakening of the peso.

Since Jan. 1, the TRAIN Act has raised the cap for tax-exempt income to P250,000 yearly, but it imposed an excise on products like fuel, sugar-sweetened beverages and tobacco.

Decent living

Last month, prices of basic goods and services rose to 4.6 percent nationwide, the highest in more than five years. In Metro Manila, the inflation was 4.9 percent.

Earlier, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia had said that a family of five would need at least P42,000 a month to live decently.

The amount is “roughly equivalent to a P1,400 daily income, which means that P832 is still far from a decent daily wage but we will still appreciate it if the wage board will grant our present petition,” said Manuel Corral, TUCP vice president.

Poverty ‘true enemy’

TUCP also called on President Duterte to lead the fight against poverty.

“We remind the President that the question of wage policy is first and foremost in the minds of people now. Added to this is the question of addressing the problem of inflation and the quest of all for decent jobs,” said the labor center’s president, Raymond Mendoza.

The group reminded Metro Manila’s wage board that “the true enemy of our people is poverty.”

“This is not the time for ‘business as usual.’ A token wage adjustment at this time will just demean and further insult our people … Workers deserve better. They deserve justice now,” the TUCP petition said.

Several days ago, the three regional wage boards in the Visayas approved an increase of P13.50 to P41.50 in the daily minimum wage of workers in the private sector. The amounts are way below the demand of labor groups.

The adjustments will raise the minimum wage to up to P305 in Eastern Visayas, P365 in Western Visayas and P386 in Central Visayas. —TINA G. SANTOS

Labor group files P320 wage hike petition for Metro Manila workers

THE Philippines’ biggest labor group has filed a substantial P320 across-the board wage increase petition for the more than six million minimum wage earners in the National Capital Region (NCR) as inflation, which currently stands at 4.6 percent continues to erode the purchasing power of wages.

The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) filed the wage increase petition on Thursday before the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board (RTWPB)-NCR following a careful study on the effects of the inflation rate to minimum wage earners in Metro Manila and elsewhere in the country.

“We call on President Duterte to lead from the front in the fight against poverty. We remind the President that the question of wage policy is first and foremost in the minds of people now. Added to this is the question of addressing the problem of inflation and the quest of all for decent jobs,” said TUCP president and partylist Rep. Raymond Mendoza.

The group pointed out that a P320 daily wage increase would bring the minimum wage in NCR to P832 from the existing P512 daily minimum wage to enable a family of five to survive.

NEDA Secretary Ernesto Pernia said that a family of five would need at least P42,000 a month to live decently, which is roughly equivalent to P1,400 daily income.

TUCP vice president Manuel Corral noted that P832 was still “survival wage” as it was way below the P1,400 projection of NEDA, giving the soaring prices of basic commodities and cost of services.

“That is still far from a decent daily wage but we will still appreciate it if the wage board will grant our present petition” he added. WILLIAM B. DEPASUPIL

TUCP seeks P320 minimum wage hike

The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) petitioned on Thursday the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board-NCR for a P320 across-the-board minimum wage increase in the National Capital Region.

If approved, petition would raise the daily minimum wage in the NCR to P832.The current daily minimum wage in the region, which encompasses Metro Manila and nearby provinces, is P512.

Separate petitions
TUCP assistant general secretary Vicente Camilon Jr. is hopeful that the petition will be approved.

Citing numbers supposedly from the National Economic and Development Authority, Camilon said the equivalent total is still below the P1,400 a day that a family of five needs for daily necessities.

The Trade Union Congress is also filing separate petitions for a P320 across-the-board increase before other regional wage boards, and push for similar legislation. —VDS, GMA News

Workers unite for Labor Day rally vs ‘endo’

Members of the labor coalition Nagkakaisa hold up fists with construction nails to symbolize the government’s ‘pangakong napako’ or unfulfilled promise of issuing an order ending contractualization.
Edd Gumban

MANILA, Philippines — Fired up after being left out in the cold by President Duterte, labor organizations previously at odds have bonded together to prepare for a major indignation rally on May 1.

In a joint press conference yesterday, Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) chairman Elmer Labog said the workers are “angry” over Duterte’s failure to sign an executive order that would end job contractualization.

“The growing frustration, disappointment and disenchantment of workers over President Duterte’s failure to fulfill his promise have only bonded workers. We will march as one on Labor Day in a historic first for the Philippine labor movement,” Labog said.

He said the workers will turn the Labor Day celebration into an indignation rally to show their solidarity against contractualization.

Labor groups are up in arms after Duterte’s refusal to sign an EO that will end the practice of contractualization by employers.

Instead of an EO, the President will certify as priority the Security of Tenure bill pending in Congress.

Nagkakaisa labor coalition chairman Michael Mendoza said Duterte gave them false hope that workers would finally be liberated from inhumane employment practices.

“The problem is the President did not even ask for our opinion. We gave five versions of the EO but he did not even talk to us. We were made to wait for two years for nothing,” he said.

The KMU and the Nagkakaisa, which represent the broadest labor coalition since 1980s, have called on workers “of all shapes and sizes” to join the rally.

Sentro secretary-general Joshua Mata reminded Duterte that the working class voted for him in the 2016 presidential race because of his promise to stop contractualization.
“On Labor Day, Malacañang will feel the backlash of the workers. We will show our anger over what happened. Our hope became an empty promise,” he said.

Mata said aside from the need to contend with contractualization practices, workers now also have to endure inadequate wages and the rising prices of commodities and services because of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) law initiated by the Duterte administration.

Meanwhile, an opposition lawmaker urged President Duterte yesterday to shelve his Charter change (Cha-cha) initiative and instead work on creating more jobs and fighting inflation or the increase in consumer prices.

Rep. Tom Villarin of party-list group Akbayan made the appeal in the wake of the first quarter Pulse Asia survey showing people were more concerned with jobs and inflation than with Cha-cha or the effort to revise the Constitution to shift the nation to the federal system.

“The Duterte administration should put Cha-cha in the back burner and focus on people’s needs and wants, not its own power agenda,” he said.

He said the people’s concerns as expressed in the survey should prompt the President “to fulfill his promise to end endo (end of contract).”

“While the ABC crowd sees the administration’s anti-crime campaign as a priority, the vast majority of the poor D and E classes don’t see it as such,” he said.

He added that the President and his congressional allies should genuinely work to help people cope with rising prices and to have jobs and decent wages.

While jobs, wages and inflation were the top issues in people’s minds in the Pulse Asia survey, issues that included Cha-cha were the least of their concerns.

The monthly increases in consumer prices were blamed largely on the tax reform law, officially labeled as TRAIN.

According to Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Zarate, the price hikes were caused by new and higher taxes the law has imposed starting in January. – Sheila Crisostomo (The Philippine Star) - April 26, 2018