DOLE looks into PHL’s return to national minimum wage

Workers assemble a car in a factory in Santa Rosa, Laguna, in this BusinessMirror file photo.

Efforts to revert to setting a national minimum wage are now in the initial stage, as the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) said a review of existing wage policy of the Philippines is ongoing.

Labor Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III formally announced last week that the study is now under way as lawmakers have included it in their legislative agenda.

“Once there is a bill in Congress [about it], they will be asking the wage boards. That is why we should be ready with this,” Bello told reporters in an interview.

DOLE’s National Wages Productivity Commission (NWPC) said the review is in compliance with the request of the Senate.

“It is the Senate which requested the Secretary [of Labor] to commission a third party expert to review the existing policy,” NWPC Executive Director Maria Criselda R. Sy told the BusinessMirror in an interview.
‘Transparent’

She said a local expert and specialist from the International Labor Organization (ILO) will be tasked to come out with the “inception report” that will detail how the review of wage setting mechanism will be conducted. The inception report is expected to be completed this year.

“We have to make sure it will be as open [to the stakeholders] as possible,” Sy said.

As for the role of the DOLE in the study, she said it will be to provide “technical inputs” in the undertaking based from its 30 years of implementation of the Republic Act (RA) 6727 or the Wage Rationalization Act.

Implemented in 1989, RA 6727 allowed Congress to delegate its powers to adjust minimum-wage rates to the regional wage boards.

Labor Undersecretary Ciriaco A. Lagunzad III said among the issues to be tackled by the experts are the statistical indicators that should be used in the new alternative minimum-wage setting system.

“We would like to be more accurate with our indicators and statistics, which serve as basis for wage increases,” Lagunzad said.

The former executive director of NWPC also noted this will allow them to anticipate potential impact of wage increase to ensure it will be absorb by the economy without leading to job displacement and inflation.
Consultation

Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) Spokesman Alan Tanjusay said the NWPC already met with the TUCP last week to lay the groundwork for the study.

“They accepted our proposal and they said they asked a third party to study it. We already committed to join in its discussions,” Tanjusay said.

He said they will be submitting to NWPC their position paper on matter in the coming days.

To recall, TUCP together with other members of the labor coalition and Nagkaisa, as well as militant labor group Kilusang Mayo Uno have been pushing for the abolition of the regional-based minimum-wage setting scheme.

Leaders of the said labor groups said the system has been unfair especially for workers in the provinces since they get lower minimum wages than those in Metro Manila. - By
Samuel P. Medenilla

Big workers’ groups press for end to contractualization, wage increase

Updated photo Labor Day 2019 Manila

Nagkaisa! Labor Coalition and Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU)--the largest labor groups in the country, convened on the eve of Labor Day to reiterate calls for an end to contractualization and push for the enactment of a Security of Tenure Law, while calling for increase in wages nationwide.

“We have long and consistently called for a just end to pervasive contractualization of labor, yet the practice of labor-only contracting, job-only contracting and other forms of flexible labor remain prevalent among the working people,” said Elmer Labog, chairperson of KMU.

Congress has nine more session days after the elections. Newly-elected legislators won’t begin their terms until after June 30. “The labor movement will defend workers' rights to the last. With enough political will, President Rodrigo Duterte and his allies in the Senate can still have a Security of Tenure Law enacted during this Congress,” said Atty. Sonny Matula, chairperson of Nagkaisa.

Nagkaisa and KMU were together at the Senate in early February during the last few session days prior to the recess of Congress as they mounted pressure on the Senate to pass the Security of Tenure Bill.

“This will definitely continue the pressure on the Senate, especially its reelectionist senators to openly declare either their support or opposition to the proposed End Endo Law,” Matula said.

Ending contractualization is one of the biggest promises of President Rodrigo Duterte. Many believe it was one of the issues that catapulted him to the presidency among the working people in the public and private sectors.

“Two issuances under President Duterte’s watch—DOLE Department Order 174 in 2017 and Executive Order 51 on Labor Day last year—failed to solve, and perhaps worsened contractualization,” Labog said. Duterte then certified as urgent the SOT Bill. The Senate has not passed a Security of Tenure Bill despite also getting the commitment of Senate President Tito Sotto.

The Filipino workers unity will thrive and translate into votes and campaigns against contractualization and opponents of workers' rights and benefits in the present and next Congress. “Filipino workers are proposing to clamp down on labor-only contractors by having a new law declaring labor-only contracting illegal, irrespective of a manpower agency’s capitalization or investment in equipment, and imposing heftier fines on erring employers and manpower agencies, way beyond the mere P1,000.00 that present laws provide,” Matula said.

“This is unacceptable. We cannot legitimize labor-only contractors, who do nothing but recruit and deploy workers, yet maintain supervision over contractual workers on paper. They connive with principal business owners to deprive workers of security of tenure and other basic labor rights, while avoiding legal and financial obligations,” Labog said.

House Bill 6908 on Security of Tenure was passed early this 17th Congress. Its counterpart measure, Senate Bill 1826 has yet to be passed on second reading. “The passage of the Bill is the necessary first step in changing the law towards prohibiting contractualization. While it may not result in the total ban on contractualization, we find it critical to put a stop to conditions that promote precarious work,” Matula said.

“Failure to enact a law that will end contractualization will be on the hands of the Senate. It will go down as ‘a legacy of failure’ and one of the greatest unfulfilled promises of President Rodrigo Duterte,” Labog said. The groups also said that government as an employer should walk the talk.

The nationwide unity of workers also calls for an increase in wages, especially the fulfillment of a national minimum wage, a stop to all attacks against workers and the full recognition of workers' rights, especially the right to organize.

“A significant wage hike is long overdue. The sharp increase in inflation and cost of living has already eroded the value of existing wages. We call for an immediate wage increase, and a national minimum wage for all workers in the country,” Labog said.

Labor groups Kilos na Manggagawa, Metal Workers Alliance of the Philippines (MWAP) and BPO Industry Employees Network (BIEN) already filed wage hike petitions before the NCR Regional Wage Board last week. TUCP filed a wage hike petition yesterday.

A day before Labor Day, groups call for end to contractualization, wage increase

A day before the observance of Labor Day, groups Nagkaisa Labor Coalition and Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) on Tuesday called for an end to contractualization among workers.

"We have long and consistently called for a just end to pervasive contractualization of labor, yet the practice of labor-only contracting, job-only contracting and other forms of flexible labor remain prevalent among the working people," KMU chairperson Elmer Labog said in a statement.

Attorney Sonny Matula, chairperson of Nagkaisa and a senatorial candidate, vowed that the labor movement would "defend workers' rights to the last."

"With enough political will, President Rodrigo Duterte and his allies in the Senate can still have a Security of Tenure Law enacted during this Congress," Matula said.

"This will definitely continue the pressure on the Senate, especially its reelectionist senators to openly declare either their support or opposition to the proposed End Endo law,” he added.

Duterte during the 2016 presidential campaign promised to abolish "endo" or the practice of contractualization.

In 2018, Duterte inked Executive Order 51 which prohibits the illegal contracting and sub-contracting of workers “by all parties including cooperatives.”

According to Labog, the said EO as well as the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) Order 174 in 2017 both failed to solve and instead worsened contractualization in the country.

"This is unacceptable. We cannot legitimize labor-only contractors, who do nothing but recruit and deploy workers, yet maintain supervision over contractual workers on paper," Labog said.

"They connive with principal business owners to deprive workers of security of tenure and other basic labor rights, while avoiding legal and financial obligations,” he added.

Wage increase

Meanwhile, the labor groups also called for an increase in wages, especially the fulfillment of a national minimum wage.

"A significant wage hike is long overdue. The sharp increase in inflation and cost of living has already eroded the value of existing wages. We call for an immediate wage increase and a national minimum wage for all workers in the country," Labog said.

In a separate Balitanghali report by GMA News' Mark Salazar, the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) is calling for an additional P710 on the minimum wage of workers in the National Capital Region.

"Tumaas 'yung labor productivity for the past 12 years ng 59 percent pero wala hong kapalit 'yun na real wage increase," Luis Manuel Corral, TUCP vice president, said.

If the Tripartite Wage Board will allow this increase, the minimum wage in Metro Manila will be P1,247, the report said.

For its part, the DOLE said the wage increase will be a long shot.

"Basically ang criteria ay 'yung needs ng workers, isang set 'yun tapos 'yung isa naman 'yung capacity of the employer to pay. Isang set 'yun and then the needs of the economy," Undersecretary Ana Dione said. — By ANNA FELICIA BAJO, RSJ, GMA News

TUCP claims wage hike needed to meet gov’t nutrition norms

THE Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) cited “nutritional deficiency” among workers as the reason for its petition to hike the Metro Manila minimum wage by P710, citing government data for recommended levels of nutrition.

Updated photo Labor Day 2019

The TUCP on Monday filed a petition for a P710 wage increase on top of the P500-537 minimum wage in the National Capital Region (NCR) before the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board (RTWPB).

TUCP President Raymond C. Mendoza said the “Pinggang Pinoy” model produced by the Department of Science and Technology-Food and Nutrition Research Institute (DOST-FNRI) is their “basis for the claim that minimum-wage earners and their families have subsisted on nutritionally-deficient survival meals.”

“Forcing workers and their families to subsist on nutritionally-deficient meals for a long period will definitely have bigger repercussions on business, bigger costs to the government and the economy if (the problem is) continuously ignored,” he added during a press briefing on Monday.

In TUCP’s Petition dated April 29, the group said “Using DoST’s Pinggang Pinoy model and the March 2019 PSA (Philippine Statistics Authority) Media Service Market Price of Selected Commodities, Ateneo Policy Center calculates a daily food requirement in the amount of P734 for a family of four (4) or P61.17/meal/person. A family of five would then require a daily right food budget of P917.50.”

TUCP also described as inaccurate the PSA’s 2018 Household Final Consumption Expenditure (HFCE) Survey, specifically the “Food and alcoholic beverage” estimates, which indicate that a family of five spends P208.83 or P14 per meal/family member daily.

“Clearly, the amount cannot provide for the recommended nutritional requirements for a family of five,” the TUCP said in its petition.

TUCP also said that the P537 minimum wage has long been overtaken by events even though it was implemented in November. “(B)ased on government figures, the real value of P537 daily minimum wage in NCR is only P457…with government-mandated deductions from minimum wage computed at P47.05 daily, the nominal take-home pay of a minimum wage earner is… P416.53/day with a real value of P354.60,” TUCP said.

When asked if the TUCP will be expanding its petition to other regions, Associated Labor Unions (ALU) Vice President for Education Eva B. Arcos said that TUCP is still looking into petitioning other RTWPBs. She added that other wage hike petitions will be close to the P710 TUCP sought for the NCR.

“Nagpa-plano kami (We are planning)to file a petition in Central Visayas. It’s still in process but it will be close to this figure.” she told reporters Monday, after submitting the TUCP petition for the NCR.

The TUCP Policy Office’s Louisivi J. Oliva said the union expects the RTWPB to rule that there are no supervening conditions to justify a wage hike within a year since the last wage order was been issued. New wage petitions can only be filed after a year since the last petition, except when supervening conditions warrant the filing of a petition sooner.

She said workers are still feeling the weight of high commodity prices beyond food since the implementation of the first package of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) Law last year.

“Sa TRAIN Law, walang pakinabang ang minimum wage earner dahil dati na siyang tax exempt (TRAIN did not make a difference for minimum wage earners, who were already tax-exempt under the old rules). Ang nangyari lang is tumaas lang ang presyo…dahil sa dagdag na excise tax sa fuel, (But prices also rose because of the excise tax on fuel),” she said in a briefing on Monday.

Labor Undersecretary Ciriaco A. Lagunzad III told reporters in a briefing that one of the criteria for minimum wage setting is also the Pinggang Pinoy model of the FNRI. He said, “If you look at the criteria…one of them includes a living wage. One valuable indicator is the study of the FNRI to see if wages are enough to buy food that ensure the minimum calorie requirement.”

However, he added: “The minimum wage is not designed to look only at the food requirement of the worker.”

Last week, labor groups Kilos Na Manggagawa (KnM), Metal Workers’ Alliance of the Philippines (MWAP), and BPO Industry Employees Network (BIEN) filed before the NCR RTWPB a P213 wage hike petition which would bring the NCR minimum daily wage to P750.

Senate President Vicente C. Sotto III backed “in principle” the TUCP wage hike but added that the matter may need to be addressed after the May 13 elections.

“I can understand the timing because of May 1st but it’s also election period. Therefore, it would be wise to address it after the elections,” Mr. Sotto told reporters over the phone Monday.

“In principle, I am supportive.”

Senator Panfilo M. Lacson, meanwhile, cited the need to study the petition carefully and give the wage boards leeway to decide.

“A thorough study must be made in this regard. Wage hikes are always associated with inflation as a consequence of higher prices of goods, especially in the manufacturing sector, not to mention possible loss of jobs since businesses may not be able to cope,” Mr. Lacson said in a separate phone message.

“The regional wage boards should be given enough flexibility since they should be in a better position to decide on the matter. Conditions obtaining in different areas are not the same.” — Gillian M. Cortez, Charmaine A. Tadalan