(INQUIRER FILE PHOTO/NIÑO JESUS ORBETA)
MANILA, Philippines — The Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) on Sunday called on the government to likewise grant government workers a salary in crease after the minimum wage for private sector workers in Metro Manila was increased by P40 last week.
“It is similarly urgent and important for the government also to raise the salaries of public school teachers and all other government employees as they also bear the brunt of the continually high inflation and expected more hikes in electricity, water, and transportation costs. Not to mention teachers’ low salaries in comparison to other professions such as nurses and uniformed personnel,” ACT Chairperson Vladimir Quetua in a statement issued on Sunday.
“The best the government can do to fulfill its constitutional and most fundamental mandate to its people is to recognize the real conditions of workers and employees, enact living wages across all sectors, strengthen the local economy, and heed the people’s longstanding demand for national industrialization,” he added.
Last June 29, The Department of Labor and Employment announced that its wage board in Metro Manila had approved a P40 minimum wage increase for workers in private establishments.
The increase brings the minimum wage in the region “from P570 to P610 for the non-agriculture sector and from P533 to P573 for the agriculture sector, service and retail establishments employing 15 or less workers, and manufacturing establishments regularly employing less than 10 workers,” according to DOLE.
However, ACT disputed that the increase is “a mere token” and insufficient to address the rising cost of living of Filipino workers in the private sector.
“This meager increase remains inadequate in providing workers with a living wage, falling significantly short of meeting the Php1,160 family living wage a 5-member Filipino family needs to survive. This measure is a pittance and a slap in the face of workers who are the backbone of our economy,” Quetua pointed out.