Workers ask Tulfo for a legislated wage hike aside from wage setting review

 

The labor group Partido Manggagawa (PM) welcomed the resolution of Senator Raffy Tulfo for a review of the wage setting mechanism as it also called on him to sponsor a legislated salary hike. “We could not agree more with Senator Tulfo on the need to assess the system of minimum wages which are falling behind the rapid rise of prices. But repealing RA 6727, the current law on minimum wages takes time. Thus, the imperative for immediate relief for workers through a legislated wage hike which Congress has the power to enact. We call on Senator Tulfo to lead the effort,” declared Rene Magtubo, PM national chair and a Marikina city councilor.

 

He added that “Isinusumbong ng mga manggagawa ang P100 across-the-board nationwide legislated wage hike at umaasa ng aksyon mula sa itinuturing nilang idol sa Senado. We call on Senator Tulfo to fight for workers who look up to him.”

 

PM has demanded from Congress a P100 wage hike amidst runaway inflation. Using the latest consumer price index data from the Philippine Statistics Authority, the group calculated that P88 has been eroded from the P570 minimum wages of Metro Manila workers as of the January inflation of 8.7%. Inflation in areas outside of the National Capital Region is even higher.

 

“We call on the labor movement to link up arms to win war, that is to fight for a wage increase for wage recovery. The working class needs champions in and out of Congress but only unity and action of workers can defeat the resistance of employers to a wage hike,” Magtubo explained.

 

PM also called on Senator Tulfo to consider the long-standing demand for the abolition of the regional wage boards which discriminate against workers outside Metro Manila. “Instead, we demand a National Wage Commission with the power to adjust wages on the basis of price increases and productivity growth. Even before the recent inflation, wages have stagnated amidst a decade and half of 50% rise in labor productivity. This means that employers have monopolized economic growth and workers have been left behind.”

 

“Further, a review of wage setting goes beyond minimum salaries. We are proposing a policy package called Apat na Dapat. First, wage hikes. Second, abolition of regressive taxes like VAT and application of progressive taxation such as a wealth tax on oligarchs and billionaires. Third, social security subsidies for informal workers. Fourth, discounts on basic commodities. These will protect and improve the wages and incomes of workers in the formal and informal economy,” Magtubo elaborated.

Partido Manggagawa

February 17, 2023

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

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

Even small businesses can afford a wage hike—labor group

  

The labor group Partido Manggagawa (PM) asserted that even small businesses can afford to give their workers a pay increase. This was in reaction to a statement by the Employers Confederation of the Philippines President Sergio Ortiz-Luis Jr.

 

“Wag kang 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,” explained Judy Miranda, PM secretary-general.

 

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.

 

Miranda added that “Worse, 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.”

 

She stated that “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 MSME’s.”

 

The group pointed out that a MSME with 10 workers, will only incur an additional P1,000 in daily wage costs which annually 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. But of course, ECOP—as the voice of the capitalist class in the Philippines—do not want to share the profit they have accumulated through the decade and a half of sustained economic growth,” Miranda expounded.

March 13, 2022

“We are still a Republic of Endo under Duterte”—labor group

On the eve of the SONA, the labor group Partido Manggagawa (PM) declared that “After three years of Duterte, we are a Republic of Endo, a Province of China and a puppet of the US.”

PM is participating in the coalition United Workers SONA which will mobilize on tomorrow afternoon. The United Workers SONA coalition will then join up with other broad networks for the United People’s SONA.

“We believe that the reason President Duterte has not signed the SOT bill up to now is the strong lobby of employers for a veto. Should President Duterte surrender to the demand to veto the bill, then he reveals where he stands on the class war between the workers and capitalists on contractualization. A presidential veto will just be another betrayal of his promise to workers,” asserted Rene Magtubo, PM national chair.

He added that “But even if the Security of Tenure bill is signed or lapses into law, endo will persist since the legislation is a watered-down version.” Thus the group averred that among workers demands for the forthcoming SONA mobilization is a stronger law to stamp out contractualization.

“Contrary to the wild claim of employers that the security of tenure bill is superfluous because endo has already been ended with DO 173 and EO 51, numerous loopholes allow the proliferation of contractual workers. The security of tenure bill will not end endo and will not stop contractualization because it is a weak version of the proposed law,” Magtubo averred.

In the counter-SONA rally, aside from pushing for an end to endo, workers are also clamoring for a reform of the wage-setting mechanism.

“We welcome the announcement by the Department of Labor and Employment that it will undertake a study on the current wage system in response to the calls to abolish the regional wage boards. Although we fear that powerful lobby by employers will once more scuttle any real reform,” asserted Magtubo.

PM is batting for the abolition of the regional wage boards and its replacement by a National Wage Commission which will fix a national minimum wage based on the cost of living. The group is also calling for the provision of a minimum basic income for workers in the SME sector which is unregulated and exempted from the minimum wage setting.

21 July 2019

Despite SOT bill, endo persists under Duterte

 

The labor group Partido Manggagawa (PM) stated today that even if the Security of Tenure bill lapses into law, endo will persist since the legislation is a “watered-down version.” Thus the group averred that among workers demands for the forthcoming SONA mobilization is a strong law to stamp out contractualization.

“Three years after President Duterte promised to abolish contractualization, we are a Republic of Endo, a Province of China and also a puppet of the US. Workers are suffering from precarious jobs and low pay while the domestic economy is threatened by influx of Chinese capital and debt,” declared Rene Magtubo, PM national chair.

PM is participating in the coalition United Workers SONA which will mobilize on Monday afternoon. The United Workers SONA coalition will then join up with other broad networks for the United People’s SONA.

“We believe that the reason President Duterte has not signed the SOT bill up to now is the strong lobby of employers for a veto. Should President Duterte surrender to the demand to veto the bill, then he reveals where he stands on the class war between the workers and capitalists on contractualization. A presidential veto will just be another betrayal of his promise to workers,” argued Magtubo.

He insisted that “Contrary to the wild claim of employers that the security of tenure bill is superfluous because endo has already been ended with DO 173 and EO 51, numerous loopholes allow the proliferation of contractual workers. The security of tenure bill will not end endo and will not stop contractualization because it is a weak version of the proposed law.”

In the counter-SONA rally, aside from pushing for an end to endo, workers are also clamoring for a reform of the wage-setting mechanism.

“We welcome the announcement by the Department of Labor and Employment that it will undertake a study on the current wage system in response to the calls to abolish the regional wage boards. Although we fear that powerful lobby by employers will once more scuttle any real reform,” asserted Magtubo.

PM is batting for the abolition of the regional wage boards and its replacement by a National Wage Commission which will fix a national minimum wage based on the cost of living. The group is also calling for the provision of a minimum basic income for workers in the SME sector which is unregulated and exempted from the minimum wage setting.

July 19, 2019