PRESS RELEASE
25 April 2013
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The labor group Partido ng
Manggagawa (PM) deplores the “no wage hike” on Labor Day announcement made by
the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) the other day, saying it is the
country’s unemployment problem and low-wage policy that keeps Pilar and Pepe
suffer a life of misery under chronic poverty.
The group declared that the call
for a wage adjustment will be one of the highlights of the big May Day rally planned
by the labor coalition Nagkaisa. Today the coalition is holding a motorcade
that will pass by different government agencies including DOLE. On the eve of Labor
Day, PM is holding an overnight vigil of several hundred workers and poor at
Mendiola to press for its demands against contractualization and high prices.
The no wage hike announcement
coincided with the release by the National Statistical Coordinating Board
(NSCB) of a report indicating the country’s failure to cut poverty incidence
during the last six years (2006-2012).
The same report also revealed that
those who produce the country’s food requirements—the agricultural workers and
fisherfolks—were the lowest paid among employed workers.
PM chair, Renato Magtubo, said he
found Malacanang’s wage freeze announcement as a deliberate attempt to distance
itself from the wage issue in anticipation of this poverty report by the
NSCB.
“Everybody is aware of the fact that poverty is deeply associated
with income and the latter being the product of flawed employment and wage
policy. Yet the government is trying to
skirt the wage issue as if this chronic problem of poverty is not enough to
warrant immediate action even prior to the Labor Day celebration,” lamented Magtubo.
The National Wages and
Productivity Commission (NWPC) in its last estimate (2008) placed the family
living wage (FLW) in NCR at PhP 917 per day.
FLW is significantly higher in the poorest region of ARMM where it was
estimated to reach PhP 1,322.
PM is advocating for the
implementation of the living wage concept provided under the 1987 Constitution
as against the minimum wage concept under Republic Act 6727 or the Wage
Rationalization Law. The minimum wage in
Metro Manila stands at only PhP446 a day or less than half of the desired FLW.
“To live a decent life, a Filipino family needs at least
two minimum wage earners to survive a gruelling daily life in Metro Manila
The labor leader likewise stressed
that low wage and unemployment problems are twin issues that the government
should address frontally and not through mega showcase such as job fairs done
during Labor Day. PM is advocating a paradigm shift in the economic policy of
the government as a step towards resolving the job and income crisis.
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