1% dagdag sa SSS premium suspendihin o sagutin ng pamahalaan

Nanawagan ang Partido Manggagawa (PM) sa pamunuan ng Social Security System (SSS) at sa Palasyo ng Malacañang na suspendihin ang pagpapatupad sa 1% na pagtaas sa premium contribution sa harap ng kabiguan ng pamahalaan na tugunan ang kahilingan ng manggagawa para sa P150 na dagdag sahod, gayundin sa resulta ng surbey na nagsasabing 63% ng mga Pilipino ang nakakaramdam ng higit pang paghihirap sa kasulukuyan.

 

“Premyo sa produktibidad, hindi dagdag premium sa SSS ang dapat ipataw sa manggagawa”, sigaw ng mga kasapi ng PM sa ginanap na piket ngayong umaga sa tanggapan ng SSS kasama ng Nagkaisa Labor Coalition.

 

Sa halip na dagdag kita ay pawang kaltas sa sahod umano ang napapala ng manggagawa.

 

Ayon kay Renato Magtubo, Pangulo ng PM, kabawasan sa take-home pay ang 1% dagdag premium sa SSS habang papataas ang implasyon at ang wage orders naman na iniutos ng mga regional wage board ay di pa nangalahating maibalik ang nawalang halaga ng sahod sa nakalipas na taon.

 

Inilahad din ni Magtubo na may halos P90 bilyon, ayon sa COA, na hindi nakokolektang kontribusyon ang SSS sa libu-libong pasaway na employers na di hamak na mas malaki sa inaasahang koleksyon na P51B mula dito sa dagdag premium.

 

“Suspensyon o kaya ay sagutin ng gobyerno ang kontribusyon ng manggagawa sa SSS,” deklarasyon ni Magtubo.

 

Nagpoprotesta ang mga grupo dahil habang ang layunin anila ng SSS ay pahabain ang lifespan ng pondo nito sa pamamagitan ng dadag sa premium, ang nababawasan naman ay ang hindi tumataas na sweldo ng manggagawa habang ang mga benepisyo, katulad ng sa Philhealth, ay nananatiling minimal. 

PRESS RELEASE

14 January 2025

Government or employers asked to shoulder hike in SSS employee share

Amid the criticism over the scheduled 1% hike in Social Security System (SSS) contributions starting this year, the labor group Partido Manggagawa (PM) called on either the government or employers to shoulder the increase in employee share for the current year.

 

“The increase in employee share for SSS contributions will result in lower take-home pay at a time when workers face extreme economic difficulties due to the cost-of-living crisis. In contrast, the government and capitalists have the capacity to pay. The least they could do is to lighten the burden for workers in the new year,” stated Rene Magtubo, PM national chair and a Marikina City councilor.

 

Several groups and individuals have called for the suspension of the scheduled SSS contribution adjustment in view of the economic burden on workers and pending reforms in SSS, such as the failure to collect unpaid remittances from employers.

 

It was reported yesterday that the Commission on Audit (COA) cited SSS for its inability to gather some PhP 89 billion in collectibles from almost half a million employers. The COA called this “weak performance by the SSS in collecting premiums.”

 

Magtubo said that “These employers who deduct social security contributions but do not remit them to the SSS are misbehaving and criminal, or pasaway. Simply, it is wage theft. It is time that SSS wage a war on pasaway employers.”

 

He added that “Capitalists are more than solvent as they have increased their share in the fruits of production in the last 15 years of robust economic growth. Real wages have been stagnant in that period of 50% labor productivity rise. This implies an expansion of capital share, or profit in other words.”

 

Magtubo concluded that “Alternatively, the government can also subsidize the employee share in the meantime. A large share of government revenues come from workers’ withholding taxes anyway. Formal workers disproportionately bear the burden of taxation in the country. Workers’ payroll taxes are automatically deducted while corporate taxes are dependent on the declaration of capitalists. This is a double standard.”

January 6, 2025

“Gutom Na Pilipino” (GNP) persists despite economic growth

Photo from UCA News

“The phenomenon of Filipinos going hungry persists despite 30 years of economic growth. Sa mga komunidad, madami ang gutom na Pilipino o GNP. This is the GNP that we see is increasing,” according to Judy Miranda, secretary general of the group Partido Manggagawa (PM). This was PM ‘s reaction to the statement yesterday of Finance Undersecretary Domini Velasquez that poverty will be reduced to single digits by 2028.

 

Miranda asserted that “The government is able to brag about a low poverty incidence because it uses a depressed poverty threshold. Even Economic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan finds it difficult to defend the low poverty line that he promises a review of the unrealistic basket of goods used.”

 

“We ask Undersecretary Velasquez, what are the planned government interventions so that poverty is reduced to below 10% by the end of President Bongbong Marcos, Jr.’s administration? If this forecast is merely based on continued economic growth, this prediction is misguided as it assumes that everyone benefits from a rise in gross national product. GNP increases just means more gutom na Pilipino. Trickle-down economics is a scam. Di na magpapabudol ang manggagawa sa trickle-down.” Miranda explained.

 

She added that “Workers have certainly not benefited from the robust economic growth or GNP increases. Data provided by former Finance Undersecretary Karl Chua already revealed that the economy doubled from 2001 to 2016 and labor productivity increased by half yet real wages remained flat. Meaning, the size of the economic pie expanded but the slice taken by workers stayed the same. The capital-labor share of incomes is skewed against the working class.”

 

PM avers that Filipinos will not feel the predicted poverty reduction unless that are asset redistribution programs, targeted income transfers, and expansion of public services. “We reiterate our demand for a P150 legislated across-the-board salary increase, maternity benefits for informal women equivalent to 44 days of minimum wage, and provision of public laundromats in poor communities. These are concrete examples of actions that can reduce poverty, especially for women,” Miranda concluded.

August 18, 2024

NEDA rep in NCR wage board asked to inhibit on P100 petition

  

The workers group Kapatiran ng mga Unyon at Samahang Manggagawa (Kapatiran) called on the representative of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) in the National Capital Region (NCR) to inhibit from the deliberations on the P100 wage hike petition.

 

Last December 5, 2022, Kapatiran filed for a P100 increase in the NCR minimum wage which is currently pegged at P570. Today, two Kapatiran leaders submitted a formal letter to the NCR wage board to follow up on its petition.

 

“NEDA Director General Arsenio Balisacan has already pre-judged the wage hike petition by his declaration that a salary increase is detrimental to the economy. The NEDA NCR Director who is vice chair of the NCR regional wage board cannot be expected to be impartial on the P100 wage hike petition given the very public opposition by his or her boss,” explained Rey Almendras, president of both Kapatiran and the Philip Morris Fortune Tobacco Labor Union.

 

“Aside from the NEDA rep inhibiting himself or herself, we also call on the NCR wage hike to immediately hold hearings on the wage petition in light of runaway inflation. NEDA is noisy about a wage hike hurting the ‘economy’ but is silent on the harm inflation is inflicting on workers and their families. The Bangko Sentral itself has predicted that inflation for February will breach 9%. The P570 minimum is only worth P482 as of January 2023. Today, it is worth even less. Balisacan should remember that NEDA in 2018 admitted that the cost of living was already P42,000 in a month,” Almendras elaborated.

 

Balisacan insisted the other day that a government mandated salary hike is harmful to the economy and argued that wages should only rise through voluntary action by employers as labor productivity increases.

 

Almendras countered that Balisacan’s argument is fake news. “From 2001 to 2016, real wages stagnated while labor productivity increased by 50% and the economy grew by 100%. This information comes from the Department of Finance. Facts do not stand up to the myth peddled by Balisacan. In truth, a wage hike will harm employers but not the economy,” he insisted.

 

“Capitalists are profit-maximizing actors. They will not automatically adjust wages in line with productivity. Instead capitalists will always seek to accelerate their returns unless forced by trade unionism and collective bargaining or state mandated wage orders to share part of their profit to workers who created the wealth in the first place. Even a neutral entity like the International Labour Organization understands this elementary truth,” Almendras declared.

Rey Almendras

Kapatiran ng mga Unyon at Samahang Manggagawa

March 3, 2023 

P81 have been shaved off the P570 minimum wage in NCR due to December inflation

Photo from Inquirer.net

The labor group Partido Manggagawa (PM) stated that P81 has been eroded from the P570 minimum wage in Metro Manila as a result of the continuous rise in prices. “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. We call on Congress to legislate a P100 across-the-board salary increase for all workers as relief from the shock of rising prices,” declared Rene Magtubo, PM national chair and a city councilor of Marikina.

 

Inflation in December 2022 reached 8.1%, slightly higher than the 8.0% in November. The December inflation figure was the highest recorded since December 2008, which was in the context of the onset of the global financial crisis. Notably, inflation is higher in areas outside Metro Manila. The consumer price index for December 2022 in Metro Manila was 116.6 while areas outside it was 120.1 according to statistical tables released today by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA). PM’s demand for a wage hike is based on a computation by the group using the PSA data.

 

“The P570 minimum wage in NCR is actually just worth P489 by December 2022. P81 has been shaved off the real value of the minimum wage. Meaning, not only has the P33 minimum wage hike in June 2022 been effectively wiped out by runaway inflation, workers’ real wages have pushed back even further,” Magtubo explained.

 

He insisted that “Thus, we reiterate the call we made in May 2022—before the recent round of minimum wage hikes in June 2022 by different regional wage boards—for a P100 wage increase. This should be for all workers, not just those at the minimum salary level, since all have suffered from wage erosion.”

 

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.

 

“Of course, employers will again create horror scenarios of closures and bankruptcy against the workers' demand for a wage hike. They will cry that they are suffering from the economic crisis even though they monopolized the gains of the decade and half-long business boom. Not only does the government owe workers due to unabated inflation but also employers are obligated to share the wealth created by the labor of the working class,” Magtubo expounded.

January 5, 2023

Partido Manggagawa

P76 have been shaved off the P570 minimum wage in NCR due to inflation

Photo from PhilStar

 

The labor group Partido Manggagawa (PM) stated that P76 has been eroded from the P570 minimum wage in Metro Manila as a result of the continuous rise in prices. “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. We call on Congress to legislate a P100 across-the-board salary increase for all workers as relief from the shock of rising prices,” declared Rene Magtubo, PM national chair and a city councilor of Marikina.

 

Inflation in October reached 7.7%, significantly higher than the 6.9% in September. The October inflation figure was the highest recorded since December 2008, which was in the context of the onset of the global financial crisis. Notably, inflation is higher in areas outside Metro Manila.

 

PM’s demand for a wage hike is based on an initial computation by the Labor Education and Research Network (LEARN-SENTRO). The computation for wage erosion took account of the rise in prices since the effectivity of the P570 minimum wage in Metro Manila last June 4.

 

“The P570 minimum wage in NCR is actually just worth P494 by October. P76 has been shaved off the real value of the minimum wage and workers are now poorer by that amount every day. Before the P33 minimum wage hike in June 2022, the minimum wage was P537. Meaning, not only has the P33 been effectively wiped out by inflation, workers’ wages have pushed back even further,” Magtubo explained.

 

He insisted that “Thus, we reiterate the call we made in May 2022—before the recent round of minimum wage hikes in June 2022 by different regional wage boards—for a P100 wage increase. This should be for all workers, not just those at the minimum, since all have suffered from wage erosion.”

 

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.

 

“Of course, employers will again create horror scenarios of closures and bankruptcy against the workers' demand for a wage hike. They will cry that they are suffering from the economic crisis even though they monopolized the gains of the decade and half-long business boom. Not only does the government owe workers due to unabated inflation but also employers are obligated to share the wealth created by the labor of the working class,” Magtubo expounded.

November 4, 2022

“Wag kang kuripot”—labor group to Joey Concepcion

Photo from Manila Bulletin 

 

The labor group Partido Manggagawa (PM) called out presidential adviser for entrepreneurship Joey Concepcion for opposing the demand for a wage hike. “Wag kang kuripot! Workers have been waiting for two to three years already for a minimum wage hike. Asking them to wait for the possible suspension of the excise tax betrays the greedy capitalist in Joey Conception,” stated Rene Magtubo, PM national chair and Marikina City councilor.

 

The group asserted that even small businesses can afford to give their workers a pay increase. “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 pocketed the productivity gains accruing from the blood and sweat of workers,” explained Magtubo.

 

PM had earlier called for a P100 legislated wage hike even as Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello asked the regional wage boards to review the possibility of a minimum pay hike. The group is asking that the proposed emergency session of Congress tackle a legislated wage hike.

 

“Numerous studies suggest that minimum wage hikes do not lead to increases in unemployment nor prices. Inflation and retrenchments are just convenient bogeys for government and employers to scare the public against a wage hike,” Magtubo clarified.

 

He added that “P100 is just a wage recovery not a real increase in salaries. From 2018 to the present, real wages have declined by a significant amount of 8%. The National Wages and Productivity Commission’s own data shows that as of February 2022, the P537 minimum wage in Metro Manila is worth only P494 due to inflation since 2018.”

 

“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,” Magtubo averred.

 

PM pointed out that a MSME with 10 workers, will only incur an additional P1,000 in daily wage costs which translates to 10% of its P 3 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 just do not want to share the profit they have accumulated through a decade and a half of sustained economic growth,” Magtubo expounded.

March 14, 2022

Labor partylist calls Tulfo indolent in studying the facts, calls on China to hire him if he resigns

In the midst of the controversy over Mon Tulfo’s remark about lazy Filipino workers, the labor partylist Partido Manggagawa (PM) called the special envoy to China “indolent in studying the facts.” “Si Mon Tulfo ang totoong tamad, tamad mag-imbestiga. Where is the evidence to backup his assertion that Chinese work harder than Filipinos? Does he have a time and motion study? What is his productivity metric?,” exclaimed Rene Magtubo, PM national chair.

PM supported the call of workers for Tulfo to apologize for his baseless remark and resign his post. “We call on China to hire Tulfo for his good work for them once he resigns. Tulfo should have resigned yesterday if he had any sense of decency. But he doesn’t. As envoy to China, he should be protecting Philippine interests in China instead of being an apologist of Chinese investors in the Philippines,” Magtubo insisted.

He added that “All that Tulfo has going for him are opinions of anonymous contractors who aver that Filipino workers are lazy. Lawyers called this hearsay. Ordinary people call this gossip. It is just too much to ask of him to be honest with his facts or lack of it. Likewise, it is ridiculous to ask contractors for their opinions of Filipino workers due to conflict of interest.”

Magtubo explained that “We challenge Tulfo to provide a comparative survey of labor productivity for Chinese and Filipino workers. What is obvious is that Filipino workers are underpaid and overworked. According to a study by a Department of Finance official, real wages in the country have not risen from 2001 to 2016 even as labor productivity has grown by 50% in that period. In other words, the pie has become bigger but Filipino workers have not received crumbs even. Instead employers have greedily taken all the increase in size of the pie. Workers have been denied their fair share in the fruits of production.”

March 13, 2019

Duterte asked to endorse national minimum wage

 

Amidst the controversy over the wage hike for Metro Manila workers, the labor group Partido Manggagawa (PM) called on President Rodrigo Duterte to endorse a national minimum wage instead of the present system of regional salaries.

“In a dialogue with labor groups in 2017, the President denounced what he called ‘provincial wages’ and expressed preference for a nationwide minimum wage. Given the delay in the NCR wage order and further with inflation untamed, now is the time for President Duterte to turn mere words into decisive action,” asserted Wilson Fortaleza, PM spokesperson.

There is yet no wage order for workers in the NCR as the P25 hike was called unofficial by Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello. The Employers Confederation of the Philippines said last Tuesday that the NCR wage board had agreed on a P25 salary increase for minimum wage earners.

The alleged P25 wage increase has already been slammed by labor groups as too small to compensate for the erosion in workers’ wages due to inflation. PM’s cost of living estimate for a family of five in Metro Manila is around P1,300 a day.

“We urge President Duterte to abolish regional wages as he had promised and endorse a national minimum wage based on a living wage. Since the President expressed disgust at provincial wages, he apparently knows that the policy of wage regionalization started in 1989 has led to the cheapening of labor. An evaluation of the policy performance of wage regionalization will show that it has consistently resulted in measly salary hikes that are below inflation rates and disregards economic growth” Fortaleza insisted.

He explained that “There are about a hundred minimum wages in the country that are different not just across regions but even across cities and municipalities in industrial areas as Calabarzon and Central Luzon. Wage differentials vary greatly. For example, the difference between the NCR rate of P512 and the ARMM rate of P280 is a whopping 45%. Yet the cost of living is not significantly different across regions, cities and municipalities. What kind of system is this!”

“A national minimum wage should not just be indexed to inflation but also to productivity. Real wages have not risen from 2001 to 2016 even as labor productivity has grown by 50% in that period. In other words, the pie has become bigger but workers have not received crumbs even. Instead employers have greedily taken all the increase in size of the pie. Workers have been denied their fair share in the fruits of production,” Fortaleza ended.

November 3, 2018

Strike paralyzes leading cigarette firm

Production at the leading cigarette firm in the country is paralyzed as a strike started last night. Several weeks of mediation called by the Department of Labor and Employment failed to produce a settlement as the management of Philip Morris Fortune Tobacco Corp. (PMFTC) refused the demand of the union for the reinstatement of retrenched workers. Workers at the giant Marikina factory walked off the job around 6:00 pm last night, marched around the factory and started building a picketline.

“If the company wants to resume operations then management must reinstate the workers terminated due to the sudden closure of the Vigan redrying plant and the mass layoff at the Marikina factory,” stated Rey Almendras, union president of the Philip Morris Fortune Tobacco Labor Union (PMFTCLU-NAFLU).

The labor dispute at the leading cigarette manufacturer is part of a rising wave of workers unrest. Scores of notices of strike have been filed and strikes are erupting in various companies.

“The Constitution mandates that workers receive their fair share of the fruits of production. But at PMFTC, retrenchment was the company’s reward for increased labor productivity and workers meeting key performance indicators,” argued Almendras.

Last month the Lucio Tan Group announced a P3.63 billion total income for the first quarter of this year. Some P2.35B or 65% of the total income of the Lucio Tan Group came from its tobacco business.

PMFTCLU is alleging unfair labor practice over the closure and retrenchment. The union slammed the bad faith and deceit attending the so-called right-sizing plan of management. The group believes that union busting is the real agenda as the non-union sister factory in Sto. Tomas, Batangas just regularized 100 contractual employees. In contrast, the Marikina and Vigan plants are both unionized factories. Moreover, the Vigan plant is now being operated by a new entity but with contractual workers.

“Management has been absolutely opaque behind the misnamed right-sizing plan. When management first discussed the plan before the union, they withheld the names of workers affected, they did not disclose how the termination process will proceed and finally they did not give any solid basis for the closure and redundancy. And then just hours after the meeting with the union, management unveiled its surprise gift to unsuspecting workers who were cajoled into signing separation without the presence of union officers who barred from entering the factory,” Almendras elaborated. ###

Photos of the strike can be accessed at PMFTCLU’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/zpipsamonte/

29 September 2018

Make or break mediation meeting tomorrow: Sanofi med reps call on Baldoz to broker a fair deal

SAEU members hold flash mob @ Sanofi office @ Makati

With a mediation meeting tomorrow between the union and management of pharmaceutical firm Sanofi Aventis (Phils) Inc. called by Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz herself, the med reps are calling on the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to broker a “fair deal.” The mediation is a make or break meeting as the notice of strike has already matured last week and the union has already been preparing for a work stoppage for the past several days through sustained protests.

Lei Lucido, president of the Sanofi Aventis Employees Union (SAEU), stated that “We have already reduced our demands, including for a wage increase, in a bid to break the collective bargaining deadlock. But since October, management has refused to meet its employees halfway. We just hope Secretary Baldoz can exercise moral suasion on management to open up to the union’s just and fair demand.”

“We are simply asking for salary we deserve. We are just claiming a wage increase proportionate to labor productivity and company profitability,” Lucido added.

SAEU is planning a big protest tomorrow to coincide with the mediation. The highlight will be a flash mob by several SAEU members who will dance while wearing Guy Fawkes (movie “V”) masks as expression of their determination to fight for a wage increase and decent benefits.

“We have met demanding sales quotas for two years back to back. Revenues are expanding while med reps are dwindling. Still labor costs are a mere 2% of Sanofi’s operational costs. Such productivity increases deserve a salary increase,” insisted Joseph Corpuz, a SAEU officer.

“The labor movement supports SAEU’s fight for a salary hike. All workers deserve a living wage. Ang laban ng isa ay laban ng lahat,” averred Renato Magtubo, chair of Partido Manggagawa (PM).

In the latest protest on Friday, SAEU members previewed the flash mob/dance that they will perform tomorrow. Since Wednesday SAEU has organized daily protests in cities across the country. On the first day of protests, pickets were held in the Sanofi office in Makati and the DOLE regional offices in the cities of Angeles in Pampanga, Cebu, Bacolod and Davao. Last Thursday, prayer rallies were held in the cities of Makati, Calamba in Laguna, Angeles, Cebu, Iloilo, Bacolod and Davao.

The fight of the Sanofi med reps has already gained support from various labor unions and groups. Aside from PM, members of the Bayer Philippines labor union, Philippine Airlines Employees Association, Federation of Free Workers and Industri-ALL global union have participated in the SAEU daily protests.

Photos and videos of the SAEU activities/protests can be accessed at the Facebook page "Sanofi Aventis Employees Union"

January 24, 2016

Sanofi Aventis Employees Union