Workers push for P100 hike at wage board hearing

 

Representatives of labor groups attended the NCR wage board hearing today while workers, many women, held a festive protest outside the Philippine Trade Training Center in Pasay. The group Kapatiran ng mga Unyon at Samahang Manggagawa filed a petition for a P100 raise in minimum wages on December 6, 2022 but deliberations only started this month.

 

“Like Mayon Volcano, workers are restive over the high prices and low wages. The NCR wage board should grant the demand for a wage hike if it wants to calm the seething social volcano,” asserted Judy Miranda, secretary general of Partido Manggagawa (PM).

 

She added that “As of January 2023, workers have lost P88 in the value of the P570 minimum wage due to inflation. Thus, P100 is necessary to recover the purchasing power of workers’ wages. The NCR wage board and the Department of Labor and Employment has dragged its feet on the wage hike demand for half a year already. We say, P100 dagdag sahod, now na!”

 

Some 100 members of PM, Kapatiran, Women Workers United, UWIN, and the Organisasyon ng Manggagawa sa EMI-Yazaki picketed the wage hearing. They had a boodle fight featuring kangkong and tokwa which are what measly wages can afford today. Using whistles, they also held a noise barrage to catch the attention of the wage board. “Workers are suffering from starvation wages. Instead of a living wage, workers are paid a libing wage,” Miranda insisted.

 

Similar petitions for a P100 salary increase have been filed in Regions 4-A, 6 and 7. There are also pending bills for a P150 legislated across-the-board wage hike in both houses of Congress.

 

PM also belied the arguments of employers that a wage hike will lead to higher inflation and more unemployment. “These are just horror stories peddled by employers without basis in science. Studies have shown that wage hikes do not result in any significant inflation or unemployment effects. Moreover, wage increases for workers in the formal sector also lead to higher pay for our kababayans in the informal economy, a phenomenon called the lighthouse effect. This disproves the allegation of employers that a wage hike will only benefit 10% of workers and disadvantage the other 90%. We ask that employers moderate their greed so that everybody benefits from a salary increase,” Miranda explained.

 

The group clarified that the wage hike demand is merely wage recovery. “We are not yet even talking of workers claiming a just share in the fruits of their labor. From 2001 to 2016, real wages stagnated but labor productivity increased by 50% and the GDP doubled,” Miranda maintained.

Press Release

June 21, 2023

Partido Manggagawa 

Photos can be accessed at https://www.facebook.com/partidomanggagawa/posts/pfbid0rEFb8Q445cnu6Cs2kvJpu7AemU5D7vhdib3Wfj61uc9RTT6igtEEcU5NyEfwsJp6l