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

Living wage, freedom of association asserted on celebration of Human Rights Day

 

Demand for living wage and freedom of association highlight workers’ participation in the Human Rights Day protest held in Manila, Saturday.

 

The Partido Manggawa (PM), said 74 years after the International Declaration of Human Rights and yet living a life of dignity and improvements in peoples’ standard of living that were desired under that declaration remain wanting.

 

“This is because in many states, including the Philippines, these aspirations remain a scrap of paper. And with civil and political rights, including the right to form unions, to bargain and even to strike are highly constrained, achieving living wage and rising standard of living as provided under the Constitution were never achieved,” said PM Secretary General Judy Miranda.

 

PM Joined the human rights community led by PAHRA and iDEFEND in a caravan and march to Mendiola this morning.

 

Miranda lamented that without a Labor Agenda to stand with, the Marcos administration will just be another sad episode in the country’s lack of compliance to international commitments on human rights.

 

Living wage, according to Miranda, “is the only way to achieve a golden age as the current poverty wages consigned workers to poverty even if their productivity has increased many folds during the last three decades.”

 

PM accompanied the Kapatiran ng mga Unyon at Samahang Manggagawa (KAPATIRAN) last Monday in filing a P100 wage increase for wage recovery (WinWar) petition at the NCR Regional Wage Board. Similar petitions will be filed in other regions in the next few days as inflation continues to soar.

 

PM also wants Congress to abolish the regional wage boards in favor of a national wage commission to reform the country’s wage fixing mechanisms that fail to bring wages nearer the living wage as mandated by the Constitution.

 

“The Maharlika bill should be scrapped in favor of the workers agenda such as wage hikes and wage reforms, ending endo, and the creation of strong public employment programs,” referring to the controversial Maharlika Investment Fund (MIF) that Congress is pushing, said Miranda.

 

The group said the sovereign wealth fund can only be sustained by wealth tax as the public sector runs on deficit and the real surplus is at the hands of the wealthiest businessmen.

Photos of the December 10 Human Rights Celebration can be accessed here: https://www.facebook.com/partidomanggagawa/posts/pfbid02LoqtmQCgWeYDQ4bq1ihGfRhpBYAiHCMwEmAEpEfxi8Q1tJzEu7AWPhPyNhSgJMoJl

Partido Manggagawa

10 December 2022

Partido Manggagawa welcomes SSS and GSIS exclusion from MIF, seeks GFI’s accountability

The Partido Manggagawa (PM) welcomes the decision of the House panel to spare SSS and GSIS from Maharlika’s sources of fund.

But the group maintains that the decision does not absolve Congress as well as the executives of the two pension funds from accountability.  

PM said members’ vigilance and strong opposition were key for this reversal, and thus, should be sustained to prevent future attempts at misappropriating workers’ funds.

“The mere fact that Congress toyed with the idea of creating a wealth fund out of our pension funds is already a red flag. But more reprehensible was the reckless approval of the SSS and GSIS executives to divert funds into the MIF without consulting the fund owners – the Filipino working class,” said PM Secretary General.

To prevent a repeat of this attempt for fund diversion, the group proposes that a mechanism for consultation - in the minimum regular dialogue with labor groups and in the maximum, a referendum for members - be instituted in the SSS and GSIS manual or system of operations.

Miranda explained that fund members were truly disgusted with SSS’ decision because an 11-15% increase in premiums was imposed beginning 2018 on the pretexts that the fund’s life was deteriorating, and members’ benefits need to be enhanced.  

Women workers expressed this reservation as Miranda recalled, during the public hearings on the 105-Day Expanded Maternity Leave, the SSS claimed the EML can only be funded by an increase in premiums. “But now we’ve got a surplus for Maharlika,” lamented Miranda.

Earlier, the Nagkaisa Labor coalition where PM is affiliated, countered that a wealth tax is the better source of the sovereign wealth fund (SWF) as they are a real surplus from labor’s productivity that remains concentrated at the hands of wealthy businessmen.

Partido Manggagawa

08 December 2022

Nagkaisa statement on sovereign wealth fund

Wealth fund should come from wealth tax: 

Pera naming mga manggagawa yan, bakit kayo ang nag-uusap?

 

Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs) are essentially profit-driven state-owned investment funds. Some of our neighboring countries who want to make the most out of their surplus—usually foreign exchange generated from exports—established state-owned entities to invest their excess capital on various instruments. Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, among others, created their own SWFs.

 

With the potential of SWFs to grow, they can distort incentives in an economy where they are invested enough to favor specific economic activities and enterprises. Although SWFs usually invest in foreign instruments, there is nothing stopping them from pouring investments on profitable economic activities and enterprises at home, thus, making SWFs a strategic tool for industrial policy. But this is not necessarily the motivation for the proposed Maharlika Wealth Fund.

 

Now, should workers support the government’s attempt to create an SWF?

 

That public pension funds are identified as sources of financing for the SWF already earns the proposed fund minus points. Public pension funds are fragile. There is a reason both SSS and GSIS are very careful in their investment decisions and that is because that is how they secure future generations of Filipinos. GSIS should know the risks involved especially in foreign money market, after all, their exposure to the 2007-2008 Global Financial Crisis may have costed the pension fund some of its resources.

 

Can politicians pushing for SWF guarantee the security of workers’ retirement funds while exposing it to potential losses from profit-driven, speculative investment decisions? House representatives who back the SWF argue that pension funds are guaranteed by government funds anyway, and that the SWF will come with sufficient safeguard measures.

 

But NAGKAISA has a better idea to secure workers’ pensions, and that is by not exposing them to unnecessary risks. If SWF should be pursued, it must be funded by true surpluses generated by the economy—the proceeds from wealth tax!

 

In 2020, NAGKAISA floated the idea of taxing the unused assets of the wealthiest in the country. The tax revenue from the wealth tax could have funded pandemic recovery measures of the government. Now that the Philippines is gradually recovering, potential revenues from wealth tax can now be used to fund ideas such as SWF without risking workers’ funds.

 

And what is this obsession about the term “Maharlika”? If the proponents want to connect SWF to a concept from Philippine history, then they should have kept in mind that the Philippine government does not have a good record in managing public funds. That fact is also historical. Unless the proponents have concrete plans about protecting the SWF from turning into a Maharlika Wealth Scam, House Bill 6398 cannot just be allowed to pass. In any case, workers remain critical of this proposal especially when their pensions are on the line.

NAGKAISA Labor Coalition

03 December 2022

For opposing a wealth tax, Sen. Padilla doesn’t deserve the name Robinhood

 

Photo from Inquirer.net

The labor group Partido Manggagawa (PM) stated that Sen. Padilla does not deserve the name Robinhood since he opposes the wealth tax proposal. Earlier Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian declared that he is open to studying a wealth tax as a means of raising funds for the government. The labor coalition Nagkaisa had first advocated for a wealth tax in the latter of half of 2020 to finance its call for a robust package of ayuda or assistance amidst the covid-19 pandemic.

 

“For refusing to tax the rich in order to give to the poor, Sen. Padilla is better called the Sheriff of Nottingham instead of Robinhood. He should be renamed Falsehood instead of Robinhood since he dishes out fake news to denigrate the wealth tax,” argued Rene Magtubo, PM national chair and an incumbent Marikina councilor.

 

He added that “For calling the wealth tax a lunacy, Robin Padilla needs literacy in this proposal. His arguments against the wealth tax betrays his utter lack of knowledge of the proposal and his absolute embrace of oligarchs.”

 

The wealth tax is among the set of demands including regular jobs and a living wage being put forward by PM and other groups ahead of the SONA on Monday. PM will join an assembly of rights defenders and social movements at the Bantayog ng mga Bayani on July 25, 2:30 pm. Later, the groups will hold a torch parade and march to Quezon City Hall. The next day, July 28, the human rights alliance IDefend will hold a presscon about its analysis of the SONA.

 

Magtubo emphasized that Nagkaisa’s wealth tax proposal can raise P252-272 billion by imposing a 1% tax on the P25.2-27.2 trillion assets stored in the form of stocks, foreign currency, savings and time deposits and other securities. This amount of money is enough to fund support for micro and small enterprises, and employment guarantees for the unemployed and underemployed according to Nagkaisa’s calculations.

 

“This ball park computation reveals the feasibility of the wealth tax proposal as a revenue generation scheme in the face of the economic crisis. The actual mechanics can be further worked out as we do not want to tax wage earners holding bank accounts. Instead we should only tax the filthy rich, say those with P2 billion in wealth, and adjust the tax rate to raise the same amount of P252-272 billion. Thus, the wealth tax is only for the super billionaires, not even for wealthy action stars. But imposing a wealth tax on the richest 50 Filipinos won't even make these families poorer than Manny Pacquiao.” explained Magtubo.

 

He asserted that “In any case, the wealth tax is not even revolutionary. Sober governments in Luxembourg, France, Switzerland already implement wealth taxes. In form, a wealth tax is no different from the real property tax imposed by local governments which hardly anybody finds lunatic.”

July 23, 2022

Nagkaisa! unveils Labor Agenda, calls for a wealth tax to fund recovery and development

After weeks of grassroots consultations and webinars with labor leaders, academe and some economists, the labor coalition Nagkaisa! has unveiled its “Labor Agenda sa Panahon ng Pandemya”, which contains proposals for the protection of labor rights during crisis, income and guaranteed employment for workers, support to key sectors of the economy, and a proposal for a wealth tax to fund economic stimulus, sustain development and address poverty and inequality. 

The presentation of Nagkaisa’s Labor Agenda came on the same day the House approved on second reading the Bayanihan to Recover as One and a day before today’s official announcement of the economy sinking deeper to a 16.5% contraction in the second quarter.   

“This Bayanihan 2, with its measly budget of P162-B bdudget, will neither stimulate a shattered economy nor heal an ailing nation,” declared the group in a statement, saying that a crisis of this magnitude requires a bigger stimulus and a secured, healthy labor force to prevent an ultimate collapse. 

Nakaisa’s Labor Agenda estimates not lower than a trillion-peso stimulus is needed immediately to prevent further collapse of key economic sectors; including our micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) which employ majority of our labor force; and to avoid millions of working people regressing back or sinking deeper into extreme poverty. 

The group’s accompanying proposal for a wealth tax is aimed at countering the official narrative about ‘lack of money’ hampering the delivery of aid, as well as the reluctance of economic managers to spend more for stimulus just to protect the country’s high credit rating. 

“Our wealth tax proposal once imposed upon obscene private wealth will ensure a steady funding stream of not less than P1 trillion per year. We can do so by just taxing the richest 650,000 individuals by 5%, the richest 160,000 individuals, or those with net worth of P10 million and up, by 7%, and the richest 40 individuals, or those with net worth greater than P10 billion, by 10%,” said Nagkaisa. 

“President Duterte has declared war against the oligarchy. Here is a just and winnable, whole of society struggle against poverty and inequality compared to personal attacks against a select group among the oligarchs,” added the group. 

The group said its wealth tax proposal is in fact the right way in putting flesh and blood on the constitutional provision that Congress shall evolve a progressive system of taxation (Sec 28, Art VI). “The adoption of the tax on wealth, Robin hood tax or solidarity tax is a step in the right direction as the country needs fresh sources of money to fund recovery and development.” 

Nagkaisa’s Labor Agenda has 5 R’s that represent Rights, Relief, Repair, Resilience, and Resource Refueling. 

On the protection of labor rights, the group reiterates its stand against flexible work arrangements such as endo and wage cuts, and for workers to enjoy full benefit in cases of layoff or retrenchment amid the pandemic. Nagkaisa also renew its call for #BalikTrabahongLigtas, which it claims the government has failed thus the resurgence in Covid-19 infections. Its demand includes PCR-based mass testing and safe transportation, strict compliance to OSH protocols, workers’ participation at workplace and tripartite levels, and the regular hiring of additional healthcare workers to the civil service, among others. 

The Labor Agenda likewise calls for various types of assistance, depending on the situation of those affected: guaranteed incomes for those still employed but are unable to work due to the lockdown, including returning and stranded OFWs; wage subsidies for those working in MSMEs that needed support to stay afloat; 100-day employment guarantee for those unemployed or 3-month paid trainings for those needing retooling or skills upgrading. Amelioration and income guarantee should also be extended to the informal sector as well as the elderly.

On support to MSME’s Nagkaisa is proposing for a bridging support, which include one-time grant of up to P500,000 depending on size, wage subsidy, soft loans, and even rental subsidy, with the condition that companies receiving subsidy from government do not only retain their workers but also comply with core labor standards.

On support to key economic sectors, Nagkaisa identifies agriculture and its forward and backward links to food production and other industry, garments with new emphasis on producing PPEs, chemicals and pharmaceutical industry, and construction to get immediate and strategic financing support from the government.

Nagkaisa! Labor Coalition

August 6, 2020