Thursday, February 15, 2024

Nagkaisa! Presses the Lower House to Raise Wages Higher than What the Senate Could

 

With the Senate getting closer to passing on third reading the proposed P100 wage increase, the Nagkaisa! Labor Coalition now calls on the House of Representatives (HOR) to get their own version of the bill moving and raise wages higher than what the Senate could.

 

Pending before the HOR are bills seeking a P150 and P750 across-the-board wage hikes for private sector workers, and P33,000/month entry level for public sector workers. Today, a bill was also filed for a P50,000 salary base for teachers.

 

If the HOR can create a mountain out of a molehill, like what it did for a more complicated process of revising the Constitution, then they can do the same for the wage hike bills and in correcting the defective wage setting mechanism in the country.

 

The P100 wage proposal which passed the second reading in the Senate today falls short of the P150 originally promised and a far cry from what was needed to save minimum wage earners from the poverty wages imposed upon them by all the regional wage boards.  The measure is also for minimum wage earners only.

 

Still, we welcome it as a form of relief, and a good start as well to correcting the problems created by the regional wage setting mechanism. Once legislated, this should be followed by reforming the wage setting mechanism, which both the House and the Senate should initiate, rather than waste their time on charter change. 

NAGKAISA! Labor Coalition

15 February 2024

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