Tuesday, December 6, 2022

Untamed inflation warrants immediate pay hike – Partido Manggagawa

 

                                                    

With November inflation escalating to 8.0%, the Partido Manggagawa (PM), on Tuesday, reiterated its demand for an immediate wage hike to restore lost purchasing power of workers.

 

A P100 “wage increase for wage recovery” petition was filed yesterday by the Kapatiran ng mga Unyon at Samahang Manggagawa (Kapatiran) and PM before the NCR Wage Board.

 

A wage hike, together with reforms in the country’s wage rationalization law, were part of the 5-Point Labor Agenda being pushed by Nagkaisa, a coalition to which PM is affiliated. Other agenda include, public employment program, an end to endo and trade union repression both in the private and public sector, and mechanisms for continuing dialogue to discuss industry and structural reforms. 

 

“Without an immediate pay hike, workers are left to shoulder the impacts of rising cost of living while Congress and economic managers spend their time pooling funds, including pension funds of workers, to invest in the Maharlika Investment Fund,” said PM Chair Renato Magtubo.

 

Further, added Magtubo, “without reforms in the wage fixing mechanisms, poverty wages shall be confined to where they are during the last three decades – at starvation levels.”

 

PM supports the Kapatiran petition for a wage hike and argued firmly that even without runaway inflation, workers deserve a fair share from economic growth and rising productivity.

 

“GDP and labor productivity were on the rise during the last three decades, yet real wages remained flat. So, we really don’t understand why proponents of Maharlika in Congress never thought of providing workers wealth transfers (i.e., wealth tax) and rather trained their guns at how employee pension funds can be converted into capital,” lamented Magtubo.

 

PM likewise dismisses the Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP) main argument against the wage hike petition.

 

“ECOP says only 10% of workers will benefit from a wage hike as registered enterprises are 90% MSMEs. Yet the truth is, big companies also benefit from low minimum wage by way of endo or contractualization,” asserted Magtubo.

 

The labor group said thousands of agency workers deployed in medium and large companies are paid the basic minimum wage and that is the main reason why ECOP vehemently rejects any attempt to end endo.

Partido Manggagawa

6 December 2022


No comments: