2 groups seek more pay for Central Visayas workers

By: Dale G. Israel - 3 years ago

FACTORY JOB Garment makers at a clothes factory in Lapu-Lapu City, shown in this 2020 photo, will benefit once the government approves petitions for wage increase in Central Visayas. —Photo courtesy of the MEPZ Workers Alliance

CEBU CITY, Cebu, Philippines —Two labor groups are pushing for an across-the-board wage increase for workers in Central Visayas as life turns difficult for their families due to the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and Typhoon Odette (international name: Rai), which battered the region in December last year.

But the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) and the Alyansa sa mga Mamumuong Kontraktwal sa Sugbo (Alsa Kontraktwal) differed in the amount of the increase in their separate petitions filed at the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board (RTWPB) on March 21.

The TUCP, the country’s largest labor group, is seeking an increase of P430, which will bring the minimum daily wage in the region from P404 to P834.

The Alsa Kontraktwal, on the other hand, is seeking a different matrix that will set the minimum daily wage for workers in both rural and urban areas at P750 since prices of commodities, regardless of location in the region, are almost at the same level.

The petitions will be subjected to a series of hearings by the wage board.

Survival

According to TUCP Rep. Raymond Democrito Mendoza, workers in Central Visayas are receiving salaries that are below the poverty threshold or the amount they needed to move out of poverty. The region is composed of the provinces of Cebu, Bohol, Negros Oriental, and Siquijor.

Based on the data presented by TUCP, a family of five in Central Visayas should earn at least P16,295 a month in order to survive. However, workers only take home P10,504 monthly, based on the current daily minimum wage of P404.

“We hope that workers will get what is due them,” Mendoza said in the petition.

In Alsa Kontraktwal’s petition, the group wants a P346 increase for class A areas like those in Metro Cebu, which will bring the minimum wage to P750. For rural or class C areas, the group is seeking a P394-increase which will bring the minimum daily wage to P750.

The RTWPB had approved P20 and P18 increases in the minimum daily wage in Central Visayas in 2018 and 2020, respectively.

Mendoza said those wage increases had been dissipated by the high cost of basic goods and services in the region.

“The current wage rate in Central Visayas is too low. It practically trampled [on] the dignity of workers and their families,” Alsa Kontraktwal, represented by Lorenzo Gelbero, said in its petition.

“The effects of the pandemic and Typhoon Odette, and now aggravated by the successive increase in the prices of petroleum products—which resulted in the increase [in] prices of basic commodities and services, including transportation, electricity and water, among others—have made the lives of the workers miserable,” he added.