Major labor group’s pay hike hopes dim at P80

NO RELIEF YET Metro Manila workers should not expect employers to agree to a P320 increase in the daily minimum wage, according to ALU-TUCP, one of the largest labor groups in the country.

One of the country’s largest labor groups on Friday said that workers in Metro Manila may have to settle for a daily basic pay raise of only up to P80, less than a quarter of the P344 that it had demanded from employers in the face of the rising prices of basic goods.

The Associated Labor Unions-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (ALU-TUCP) said it was “no longer hoping for a substantial increase” in the daily minimum pay of workers following discussions on the wage hike during the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board’s (RTWPB) three-part hearing this week.

“[The discussions were] routinary and they were just going through the motions,” ALU-TUCP spokesperson Alan Tanjusay said.

ALU-TUCP claims to have 1.2 million members and is composed of around 30 federations in the agricultural, manufacturing, services and government sectors. Its affiliates represent overseas Filipino workers, drivers and workers in the informal sector.

On Monday, the group filed a petition for a minimum daily wage increase of P344 in the National Capital Region to help workers recover their purchasing power, which had been weakened by inflation that rose to 6.2 percent in the third quarter.

In June, the group sought a wage adjustment of P320. At the time, the second quarter inflation rate averaged 4.8 percent, higher than the first quarter rate of 3.8 percent.

Tanjusay said that based on the presentations made by the government and employers groups, and taking into account the current inflation rate, they estimated that the adjustment to the current P512 daily minimum wage in Metro Manila may just be around P60 to P80.

Workers in the metropolis receive the country’s highest daily minimum wage but its value has eroded to just P340, according to ALU-TUCP.

While RTWPB chair Ana Dione on Friday declined to say how much the wage adjustment would be, she assured Metro Manila workers that the amount the board would arrive at would be a “just and inclusive increase.”

“This is not an easy job. We will consider everything during our deliberation,” Dione said, adding that any adjustment would definitely be given within the year.

At the end of Friday’s hearing, the Employers Confederation of the Philippines (Ecop) suggested that rather than always putting pressure on businesses to increase wages, government should instead “explore other options to provide protection to workers.”

According to Ecop governor Antonio Abad, the government could, among other things, lower the cost of living in the country, lift the tax reform program’s excise tax on fuel and institute price controls on food, electricity and water.

“Government should not pass on the burden of protecting the welfare of workers to employers alone. Let us help one another because if you will just press and press the employer to take care of inflationary rate, many of our business will collapse and there will be more unemployment,” he said.

Abad said on Wednesday that a P20 increase in the daily minimum wage would be “acceptable,” warning that a significant pay increase would further jack up the prices of goods and result in business closures and loss of jobs for thousands.

The RTWPB was expected to arrive at an amount for the wage adjustment as early as Friday night. However, the new wage order will only be implemented 15 days after it is published in a newspaper of general circulation.