Dagdag-bawi ang gobyerno sa pagtaas ng sweldo!

 

A wage subsidy and a 4-day work week should complement not replace a wage hike. A complete package of responses includes an across-the-board wage hike for all workers, wage subsidy for MSMEs which cannot afford the pay increase, P10,000 ayuda for informal workers and an expansion of the 4Ps in terms of coverage and benefits for indigents.

 

The P100 that we are proposing is not even a wage hike. It is just wage recovery. Wages have lost their value due to runaway inflation for the past three years! The P100 wage recovery must be across-the-board since all workers have been affected by high food and fuel prices. It must be legislated by Congress when it convenes for a special session to tackle the economic crisis.

 

Why is it that workers are always first to sacrifice during an economic crisis and last (if at all) to benefit during a business boom?

 

A 4-day work week or compresed work week (CWW) without overtime pay is abuse of workers. CWW would be acceptable to workers if overtime pay is provided. More money in the hands of workers means more money to be spent for goods and services (unlike the rich, the working poor consume all their income) and thus would be good for economic recovery.

 

The multiple and intersecting covariate shocks of runaway inflation, supertyphoons and the pandemic is a wake-up call for long-term and transformative solutions. We must fund universal health care. We must shift to renewable energy and create climate jobs. We must support farmers for food sovereignty. We must promote an industrial policy that generates full employment.

Press Statement

March 17, 2022

Labor group raises concerns on 4-day work week proposal

PRESS RELEASE

18 February 2014

 

The labor group Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) has raised several concerns to the proposed 4-day work week to address monstrous traffic caused by the construction of Skyway 3, saying the proposal may not achieve its intended outcome.

 

“It does not follow that by reducing days of work, the volume of vehicles will significantly drop as most ordinary workers do not own vehicles.  It is not also automatic that when you cut the number of workers in a particular day, you also cut the business operation of public utility vehicles (PUVs),” said PM spokesperson Wilson Fortaleza.

 

Based on available data, private vehicles absolutely outnumber public utility vehicles in Metro Manila but around 70 percent of the volume of transporting people is carried out by PUVs.

 

“The proposal to cut the workers’ volume on a particular day of a week, however, is based on the plain assumption that no work would mean less vehicles on the streets, which is wishful thinking when the city is ruled by private vehicles,” said Fortaleza.

 

Another concern, he said, will be the impact of this proposal to small scale and micro enterprises (SMEs), particularly those in the wholesale and retail industry which comprise more than 90% of establishments and which employ the biggest number of workers in Metro Manila. 

 

The group said that the List of Establishments prepared by the National Statistics Office (NSO) indicated that establishments located in NCR employed about 3.0 million persons or 39% of the total employment in 2012.  On the average, each establishment in NCR employed about 14 persons.

 

PM further believes that compared to big industries, SMEs productivity and survival rely on daily sales of goods and services.

 

Fortaleza added that while flexible working hours is allowed under the law, it should not likewise result to the reduction or diminution of workers’ benefits, specifically on the provision of overtime pay above the mandatory 8-hour work day.  The proposal, he said, may lead to legalizing non-payment of overtime.

 

“Thus, absent a thorough study and consultations on affected sectors, the proposal to clear off the roads may end up punishing the poor,” stated Fortaleza.

 

PM, however, concedes that the traffic problem in Metro Manila must be addressed in the immediate and in the long term, but believes that there are many ways to do it. 

 

“Solutions to the problem must not only serve the minority interest of car-owning population.  City spaces, including roads, must also be inclusive. Thus, we are more in favour of developing mass transport systems particularly railways, rather than building more road networks that largely serve the comfort of private car owners,” concluded Fortaleza.