PHP 50/day minimum wage increase is a drop in the bucket

 

Image from ABS-CBN

Five P10 coins may be the biggest alms that the NCR wage board ever gave workers, but it is still barya (small change). The PHP 50/day minimum wage increase, bringing the new minimum wage to PHP 695, is woefully inadequate in addressing the skyrocketing cost of living in Metro Manila. With a daily living wage of over PHP 1,200 for a family of five, this increase barely makes a dent in the poverty faced by workers.

 

Working poor despite wage hike

 

The new minimum wage of PHP 695 translates to a monthly salary of PHP 15,290 (based on 22 working days). However, this is still below the regional poverty threshold of PHP 15,713 as of 2023. Given the rising cost of living, the poverty threshold is likely even higher now, making workers in Metro Manila even poorer.

 

Call to action

 

The labor movement recognizes that the current wage system perpetuates cheap wages. That's why we're fighting for real change through a legislated wage increase of PHP 200 in the upcoming 20th Congress. We urge all workers to unite and join the fight for a legislated wage hike that will genuinely improve our standard of living. Together, we can demand a fair wage that allows us to live with dignity. 

Cabinet resignation is not a bold reset but just a marketing gimmick if not matched with policy shift

Rappler photo

 

The labor group Partido Manggagawa (PM) criticized President Bong Bong Marcos Jr.’s call for the resignation of his entire cabinet as just a marketing gimmick and not a bold reset since it is not complemented by a policy shift that addresses hunger and poverty. President Marcos Jr. announced the cabinet revamp yesterday as his response to the loss of the administration senatorial slate and falling popularity ratings.

 

“The welfare of workers and the poor will not improve if there are new faces in the cabinet who implement the same policies of cheap wages, endo jobs and gutting of public services. Instead, labor groups want to see PBBM declare a bold reset in policies: certify the P200 wage hike as a priority legislation, support the security of tenure bill and return the Philhealth funds so it can scale up its services to members,” stated Rene Magtubo, PM national chair and re-elected Marikina councilor.

 

PM dared the administration to heed these concrete demands as an effective response to the discontent of voters as revealed in the recent polls and surveys. “PBBM also needs to shape up, not just his cabinet secretaries. It's not only the performance of the cabinet secretaries that should be reviewed and evaluated, but also PBBM's policies and programs that fail to address the serious problems of corruption, poverty, low wages, high prices of goods, and inadequate public services in health and education,” Magtubo explained.

 

To recall, last Labor Day, PBBM rejected the call for a legislated wage hike and instead asked the regional wage bords to respond to the demand for salary adjustments. Yesterday, the NCR wage board called for a consultation with labor groups. The group Kapatiran ng mga Unyon at Samahang Manggagawa attended the consultation but called on the NCR wage board to defer to Congress so that the latter can address the wage demand through legislation.

 

Magtubo added that “Cabinet members serve at the pleasure of the president and are thus his alter egos. Therefore, if the policies and programs fail to address the worsening problems, the primary responsibility lies with the president—not just his alter egos.”

 

Kapatiran is calling for a P200 national wage hike to recover the P126 erosion of wages due to inflation and P74 as share in the rise in labor productivity. PM is supporting Kapatiran’s demand for a legislated P200 salary increase. 

Labor group calls for ₱200 wage hike, urges NCR Wage Board to defer to Congress

Rey Almendras at NCR wage consultation 

 

Metro Manila — In a strongly worded statement delivered at the NCR wage consultation, the labor group Kapatiran ng mga Unyon at Samahang Manggagawa (KAPATIRAN) called on the regional wage board to defer action on wage orders this year and instead support a legislated wage hike through Congress. The Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board–National Capital Region held a “Labor Sector Wage Consultation” yesterday afternoon at the Philippine Trade Training Center in Pasay City.

 

Rey Almendras, KAPATIRAN President, emphasized the worsening economic hardships faced by Filipino workers despite official claims of low inflation and declining unemployment. Citing recent survey data, Almendras highlighted that over a quarter of Filipino families are experiencing hunger, while more than half consider themselves poor—the highest levels seen in decades.

 

“The minimum wage—even with almost yearly increases—remains below the poverty threshold. Workers are starving while government figures paint a rosy picture,” Almendras said. KAPATIRAN pointed to the erosion of real wages, noting that the current ₱645 nominal daily wage in Metro Manila has a real value of only ₱519—₱126 short of its 2018 equivalent. The group argues that, when combining wage recovery with a just share in productivity gains, workers are entitled to no less than a ₱200 daily wage increase.

 

This, Almendras noted, is not just a demand but a constitutional right. “The Constitution mandates a living wage and a just share in the fruits of production. But workers haven’t felt either,” he said. “Despite rising productivity, the real wage hasn’t kept up.”

 

KAPATIRAN also expressed frustration over past wage orders issued by the NCR Wage Board, which fell far short of workers' demands—granting only ₱40 and ₱35 increases in 2023 and 2024 respectively. Kapatiran filed a P100 wage petition in December 2022.  “We’ve lost hope in the regional wage board. They’ve been blind and deaf to workers’ pleas. It’s time for a new path,” Almendras declared.

 

The group is now joining a broader coalition of labor organizations pushing for a national, legislated wage hike in Congress, citing the stronger prospects brought by the recent election of pro-worker legislators. In closing, Almendras issued a direct appeal to the NCR Wage Board: “Please refrain from issuing a wage order this year. Let Congress do its job. With workers’ actions inside and outside Congress, we hope to finally win our demand.” 

PRESS RELEASE

Rey Almendras

President, Kapatiran

P40 wage hike mirrors the state of poverty workers will continue to suffer under Marcos

The P40 increase in the NCR minimum wage ordered by the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board (RTWPB) mirrors the state of poverty workers endured exactly one year after and will continue to suffer under the Marcos Jr. administration. This wage growth, to say the least, neither can bring the poverty rate down to 9% by the end of his term nor lift the country up the upper middle-income status by next year as prophesied by his economic managers during his first State of the Nation Address (SONA).

 

Today’s real value of the adjusted P610 in daily minimum wage is only about P516.51 or even lower than the current nominal wage rate of P570. Also, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) computation of P18,000 new monthly minimum wage for NCR workers was incorrect because it simply multiplied P610 by 30 days when in truth, private sector workers work only for 5 to 6 days per week or 22-26 days per month. That translates to a monthly take home pay of less than P13,420 for those in 5-day workweek and P15,860 for those in 6-day workweek after the mandatory deductions for social security.

 

To illustrate further, because the regional wage boards do not order another wage hike within a year after the last wage order, the total for one year from this P40 increase in daily wage at 5-day workweek would only amount to P10,560 (P40 x 22 days x 12 months). Again, this annual take from the P40 wage hike is even lower than the 2021 monthly poverty rate of P12,030 in NCR which by the way is far lower than the SWS ‘self-rated’ poverty of 40% of total families in the region.

 

Accordingly, the P40 wage hike didn’t even meet half of the P100 wage recovery petition of the Kapatiran ng mga Unyon at Samahang Manggagawa (Kapatiran) on the sole basis of soaring inflation. In short, this amount of increase can neither be considered as a sensible measure to address poverty and inequality as this, in any way, does not move wages closer to the social objective of providing our workers a living wage as well as fair share from their growing productivity as provided under the 1987 Constitution.

 

Malacañang and Congress, therefore, must share the duty of rectifying the mistake of relegating wage determination to the regional wage boards which places workers’ cost-of-living last among the many criteria they consider in determining wage orders.  This failure of RTWPBs to go beyond poverty wages now brings us to demand Congress to expedite the passage of the P150 across-the-board wage hike now pending before the two Houses. In addition, our policymakers should now consider repealing RA 6727 which created the RTWPBs and replacing it with a new national mechanism that is more responsive to the social objective of raising the workers standard of living.  

 

Another way for the government to ensure improvements in the living standard of workers is to allow them full freedom in exercising their rights to unionize and negotiate better benefits and working conditions with their employers. These rights, the government fully knows, are grossly undermined by existing security policies such as demonization and red-tagging of union activities by the NTF-ELCAC and on the economic side, the normalization of ‘endo’ and other labor contractualization schemes.

 

Absent fundamental reforms on these policy areas, the next five years under Marcos will just add another half-decade of misery for the Filipino workers.

30 June 2023

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

Workers welcome DOLE review of P100 wage petition, call for tripartite talks

Labor Secretary Bienvenido Laguesma

 

The labor group Kapatiran ng mga Unyon at Samahang Manggagawa (Kapatiran) welcomed the statement by Labor Secretary Bienvenido Laguesma that the government is reviewing the P100 wage hike petition even as it asserted that it had not been consulted by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) on the matter.

 

Kapatiran is asking the DOLE to immediately convene a tripartite meeting to discuss the wage increase as a response to the cost-of-living crisis. Labor Secretary Laguesma stated the other day that the DOLE is studying the wage petition and is conducting consultations.

 

“We call on Labor Secretary Laguesma to hold a tripartite meeting on the wage hike petition,” demanded Rey Almendras, president of Kapatiran and union president of the Philip Morris Fortune Tobacco Labor Union.

 

He added that “As the petitioner for the P100 wage increase in the National Capital Region (NCR) wage board, Kapatiran expects to be among the groups consulted. Unless Secretary Laguesma is only holding dialogues with employers not workers. Especially since he seemed very concerned that the government needs to do a balancing act over the wage hike demand. Why is it that the government is overly worried about the capacity to pay of employers and not the capacity to buy of workers?”

 

Kapatiran filed a petition for a P100 minimum wage hike at the NCR wage board on December 6, 2022. The group argued that workers need to recover the eroded purchasing power of wages. “Kapatiran calls on other labor groups to link up arms in order to win war—that is, wage increase for wage recovery,” declared Almendras.

 

Runaway inflation has already cut P88 from the P570 minimum wage of NCR workers according to a computation by Partido Manggagawa (PM) based on the latest consumer price index data of the Philippine Statistics Authority. Inflation in January this year rose to 8.7%, much higher than the 8.1% in December.

 

“We call for a new round of wage hikes to recover the lost purchasing power of workers not just in Metro Manila but in the whole country due to the surge in inflation. The P33 minimum wage hike in June 2022 has been effectively wiped out by runaway inflation and workers’ real wages have pushed back even further,” asserted Rene Magtubo, PM national chair and a city councilor of Marikina.

 

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,” Magtubo maintained.

February 13, 2023

Kapatiran ng mga Unyon at Samahang Manggagawa

Labor group opposes wage hike exemption and deferment

 

The labor group Partido Manggagawa (PM) opposed the call of employers for exemption and deferment of the minimum wage hikes for workers in the National Capital Region and Western Visayas. “It is adding insult to injury to workers for the regional wage boards to exempt and defer the wage hike as demanded by employers. The minimum wage increases are not even enough to recover the value lost to inflation for the past three years. If the hikes are deferred and employers exempted then the most vulnerable workers are left with nothing,” declared Rene Magtubo, PM national chair.

 

Yesterday the NCR wage board announced a P33 increase, thus raising the minimum wage in Metro Manila to P570. Likewise, the Western Visayas regional wage board yesterday hiked the minimum wage by P55 to P110. PM had earlier called for a P100 legislated wage hike.

 

The group averred that even small businesses can afford to give their workers a pay increase. “Wag kayong kuripot! Before the pandemic, businesses, both big and small, accumulated revenues and profit without sharing the productivity gains to their workers. From 2001 to 2016, the economy doubled in size and productivity increased by 50% but real wages remained stagnant. The pie became larger but the slice of workers remained the same. Employers greedily monopolized all the new wealth produced by the blood and sweat of workers,” Magtubo explained.

 

He added “The economic slump is not an argument against a pay increase. Instead it is a reason to provide money to consumers through a wage hike. Boosting the purchasing power of consumers—especially lowly paid workers who spend most of their take-home pay compared to high income earners—will pump prime the economy and lead to the revival of MSMEs.”

 

The group pointed out that a MSME with 10 workers, will only incur an additional P330 in daily wage costs or P8,580 in monthly labor expenses which translates to a mere 0.3% of its P3 million asset size. “This will definitely not bankrupt an MSME. But a lack of market because of low consumption will kill an MSME. A wage hike will create a virtuous cycle in the economy. Capitalists simply do not want to share the profit they have accumulated through the decade and a half of sustained economic growth,” Magtubo expounded.

 

He insisted that “P50 is needed as wage recovery in the NCR. The National Wages and Productivity Commission’s own data shows that as of April 2022, the P537 minimum wage in Metro Manila is worth only P487 due to inflation since 2018.”

 

“The International Labour Organization (ILO), in its Minimum Wage Policy Guide, asserts that exemptions defeat the very purpose of the minimum wage which is to protect the income of the most vulnerable segment of the working class. ILO experts also argue that a plethora of minimum wages serves as a barrier to efficient and effective enforcement of minimum wages. This is precisely the problem in the Philippines where even in one region such as Calabarzon there are different minimum wages across different towns,” he stated.

May 15, 2022

Lockdown order lack guarantees for workers’ welfare, civil liberties

Photo from autoindustriya.com

The labor group Partido Manggagawa (PM) asked that guarantees be put in place in the so-called ‘community quarantine’ imposed on Metro Manila in order to protect workers’ welfare and civil liberties.

“President Duterte’s order to lockdown Metro Manila for 30 days opens the way for workers’ rights and civil liberties to be violated. Freedom of assembly should not be sacrificed since community organizations and civil society groups should be able to meet and deliberate on urgent matters including a proper covid response,” stated Rene Magtubo, PM national chair.

He added that “We wanted to hear President Duterte mobilize public and private resources, especially health personnel, to combat covid but instead all we heard is the mobilization of police and soldiers. Will checkpoints be manned by health workers with test kits or just police with guns?”

Magtubo explained that “Workers’ welfare is also bound to be sacrificed in the lockdown order that lacks clear guidelines and a labor-first perspective. Workers living outside NCR are supposed to allowed to enter and leave the capital as long as they have company ID’s. But informalization of labor—like the practice of endo—means there are numerous workers without proper ID’s and employment contracts. Many construction workers who are employed on an informal basis do not have proper documentation. Finally, informal workers like street vendors obviously do not have ID’s. The lockdown means they will not be able to travel to work and earn a living which will lead to health issues and vulnerability to covid.”

The group reiterated its call for the DOLE to issue an order mandating a worker-first policy on the employment impact of covid. “We do not accept management prerogative in implementing dismissals or flexible arrangements like forced leaves or work rotation. First of all, the DOLE must issue a determination that there is a real impact on the company. After which, any flexible work arrangement must be negotiated with duly-elected workers’ representatives or the union in case the company is organized,” Magtubo insisted.

 The group also proposed the following concrete measures:

1.      Paid leave for workers to be shouldered by employers and the government;

2.      Pay for workers put on forced quarantine to be shouldered by employers and the government;

3.      Implement work from home arrangements, in applicable jobs, without diminution of wages and benefits;

4.      Provision of personal protective equipment for all health and allied workers in the frontline of covid response;

5.      Living pension for senior citizens since the elderly are more prone to infection;

6.      Shift build-build-build budget to health in order to build more hospitals, provide testing and treatment facilities, hire more health workers;

7.      Health tax on the wealthy—as part of CITIRA—to fund universal health care.”

March 13, 2020

Labor group slams ATM fee hike

 

The labor group Partido Manggagawa (PM) declared its opposition to the planned increase in ATM fees. “Charging P15 per withdrawal is already burdensome. Doubling the fee would be onerous on workers receiving their wages through payroll ATM accounts,” stated Rene Magtubo, PM national chair.

He explained that “P15 is almost 3% of the daily minimum wage in NCR. Worse it is around 4% of the daily of a minimum wage earner in the Cavite economic zone. Doubling the ATM fee would mean banks taking 6 to 8% of the minimum wage of workers per withdrawal. This is highway robbery.”

The group called on the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas to use its regulatory power to freeze once more any ATM fee hikes. PM also supported the congressional inquiry on the issue.

“We call on the bankers to moderate their greed. Unlike workers’ wages, banks’ profits are higher by 26% compared to last year,” Magtubo opined.

He reminded the banks that workers are forced to withdraw from ATM’s since salaries are now commonly received through payroll accounts. “It is no fault of the workers that they have to transact through ATM’s. And of course, the most convenient way is to access your account is from the nearest ATM which is not necessarily one from their payroll bank. Workers would not want to waste time and fare by going to their own bank’s ATM if is one or several rides away.”

August 13, 2019

P25 is alms not relief to overworked yet underpaid NCR workers

DOLE Sec Bello announced this morning the P25 wage hike earlier leaked by ECOP as if it was a moment of glory for him. P25 is just alms not relief to overworked yet underpaid Filipino workers. P25 cannot compensate for the 7% runaway inflation in Metro Manila and real wage stagnation despite 50% productivity growth from 2001 to 2016.

The whole controversy about the NCR wage hike just proves that no matter how hard workers make a devotion to Santo Rodrigo, they will not be blessed with a sufficient wage order. The problem lies in the system of wage regionalization in which wage boards base their wage hikes on the capacity to pay of employers and not on the cost of living of workers.

P25 is short by 30% to make up for the P35.84 erosion in wages due to the 7% inflation in the NCR recorded in August this year. Partido Manggagawa’s own cost of living estimate for a family of five in Metro Manila is around P1,300 a day, more than double the new minimum wage of P537.

Even if the NCR wage board had ordered a P35.84 wage hike, it still means real wages are just frozen. But workers should partake of a just share in the fruits of production as mandated by the Constitution

Government and employers representatives control the majority of the regional wage boards and they connive to fix wage cheap on the argument of capacity to pay. Sec. Bello himself asserted today in the presscon, in response to questions, that wage hikes are tempered by the criteria of capacity to pay.

Why is it that when employers buy the labor power of workers, their capacity to pay is paramount but when workers buy their daily necessities, their capacity to buy is not considered? This is the double standard of capitalism!

This latest episode is a wakeup call for organized labor to unite around the call to abolish the wage boards and enact a new system of wage fixing that will implement the Constitutional mandate of a living wage for workers. The labor movement has shown the capacity to unite around the demand to end endo. It is high time to rally round the call for end wage regionalization.

November 5, 2018