Atty. Sonny Matula, the president of the Federation of Free Workers (FFW), said on Tuesday that the ball is now in the HOR’s court after Senate Bill No. 2534 received 20 affirmative votes during the upper chamber’s plenary hearing, pushing the wage hike a step further into becoming a law. (INQUIRER FILES)
MANILA, Philippines —Labor leader Sonny Matula has urged the House of Representatives (HOR) to approve quickly a counterpart bill for the recently passed Senate bill on the daily wage of P100.
Under the bill, all private sector employees, regardless of being in the agricultural or non-agricultural sector, are entitled to the P100 daily minimum wage hike.
READ: Senate approves P100 daily wage hike bill
Matula, a lawyer and the president of the Federation of Free Workers (FFW), said on Tuesday that the ball is now in the HOR’s court after Senate Bill No. 2534 received 20 affirmative votes during the upper chamber’s plenary hearing, pushing the wage hike a step further into becoming a law.
“Ang bola ay nasa House of Representatives. Di dapat sila matutulog tungkol dito,” the labor leader said in a statement.
(The ball is now at the House of Representatives. They should not sleep on this.)
“Our eyes are now on the HOR. We will persuade them to shoot the ball,” Matula told Inquirer.net in a text message.
He said that his group will try to have a dialogue with members of the HOR and House Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez to expedite the lower chamber’s passing of a counterpart bill on the legislated wage hike.
A higher wage hike
Matula further said that now, the lower chamber has the opportunity to increase the wage hike further, as he recommended merging two proposed wage increases filed by members of the HOR.
He was referring to Rep. Raymond Democrito Mendoza’s House Bill No. 7871 which proposes a P150 daily wage hike and members of Makabayan bloc’s House Bill No. 7568 proposing an across-the-board daily wage increase of P750.
READ: House bill seeks P750 pay hike for private sector workers
“Our suggestion is to consolidate the P750 Makabayan bill with the P150 TUCP [Trade Union Congress of the Philippines] bill of Mendoza. We can adopt the P150 bill of Mendoza for expeditious passage in the committee level for endorsement to plenary,” the labor leader explained in a text interview.
Mendoza is a representative of the TUCP party-list.
“Maybe it can still be increased,” Matula said.
Economy is the priority
Meanwhile, the Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP) said that while a wage hike for private sector workers is a good idea, most laborers in the Philippines do not belong to this classification and would not benefit from the wage increase.
ECOP President Sergio Ortiz-Luis Jr. explained in a radio interview that 84 percent of the 52 million laborers in the country will not benefit from the wage hike as these workers, including farmers, fisherfolks, and jeepney drivers, do not have employers.
“Ang sabi ng mga ekonomista, even iyong 100 pesos na dagdag sahod, temporary lang iyan. After a few months, maaabutan din ng inflation. Paano iyong mga hindi nabigyan?” he asked in an interview over at DZBB.
(The economists say that even the 100 pesos increase in wages is only temporary. After a few months, it will also be affected by inflation. What about those who were not given anything?)
He noted that the effective management of inflation and of the country’s economy should be the priority of the government to ensure that wage hikes would not be a band-aid solution to the increase in the price of goods.
If a legislated wage hike were to be approved by both chambers of Congress, it would be the first in 35 years.