Workers call P13 wage hike measly

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO—The increase of P13 in the daily basic pay of minimum wage earners in Central Luzon could barely make up for food price hikes in the last three years, Manggagawa para sa Kalayaan ng Bayan (Makabayan) said.

Emily Fajardo, secretary general of Makabayan-Central Luzon, said the P13 approved by the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board and which will take effect on Nov. 30 was “far from the actual needs of workers.”

“How can we feel some relief when the P13 hardly covers the increases in prices of rice and other basic commodities?” she said.

She said not all of the more than 10 million workers in the region stood to benefit from the increase because only minimum-wage earners were qualified to get it.

“What the national government should enforce is an across-the-board wage increase of P60 so our earnings can cope with the actual costs of living and the needs of workers. No one should be exempted from the across-the-board wage increase. It should accrue to contractuals and regular workers because all of us are adversely affected by the high prices of basic food, other commodities and utilities,” Fajardo said.

Members of Kilusang Mayo Uno and All Workers Unity protested at the national office of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) in Manila on Thursday, demanding the abolition of regional wage-setting laws and the establishment of a national minimum wage starting at P16,000 per month, or P530 per day.

Minimum wage rates in Central Luzon were last raised in 2012.

The wage board, which consists of officials from the DOLE, the Department of Trade and Industry, and the National Economic and Development Authority, considered the region’s poverty threshold, average wage and impact of changes in the consumer price index, or the inflation rate, on the workers’ purchasing power, among other factors, when it approved the additional P13 pay.

The new wage order said the P13 raise was 10 percent of the P130 wage increase proposed by Indo-Phil Textile Workers Union-Philippine Trade and Workers’ Association on May 20.

Based on the order, the new minimum wage in Bataan, Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga, Tarlac and Zambales provinces ranges from P342 to P349 for nonagriculture workers, P303 to P319 for agriculture workers, and P324 to P338 for retail and service workers.

The new minimum wage in Aurora province stands at P298 for nonagriculture workers, P271 to P283 for agriculture workers, and P228 for retail and service workers. Tonette Orejas, Inquirer Central Luzon