SC asked to nullify wage rationalization act

Various labor organizations asked the Supreme Court (SC) to declare as unconstitutional Republic Act 6727 or the Wage Rationalization Act for violating the equal protection of the law.

In their 29-page petition, they also asked the high court to stop the National Wage and Productivity Commission (NWPC) and all the Regional Tripartite Wage and Productivity Boards (RTWPB) from further issuing regional wage orders.

The Supreme Court was also asked to abolish the 17 Regional Wage Boards in the Philippines and set and standardize a National Minimum Wage all over the country.

Due to the enactment of RA 6727, there are different minimum wages set all over the country with the highest as P481.00 in the National Capital Region (NCR) and as low as P250 at the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

“This [disparitative] absurdity is the effect of 26 years of implementing  the provisions of RA 6727,” the petition stated, adding that such disparity has deprived over 62 million laborers nationwide.

Petitioners said the minimum wage set by NWPC and RTWPBs failed to meet the suggested living wage by various think-tanks including the IBON Foundation.

Data from IBON Foundation showed that on May 2012, the daily minimum wage is P446 while the family living wage is P1,017 with a wage gap of P571.

“Minimum wages in the country have long failed to provide for an adequate living wage for laborers. This is due to the fact that the criteria in determining minimum wages as defined by RA 6727 are patently erroneous, biased, and ultimately unconstitutional,” the petition stated.

Among the criteria under RA 6727 include: demand for living wages, wage adjustment vis-a-vis the consumer price index, the need to induce industries to invest in the countryside, fair return of the capital invested and capacity to pay of employers.

But petitioners pointed out that nowhere in the Constitution or in international conventions provide that a living wage must carry with it the fair return of capital by the employers.

“Although the petitioners are not unmindful of the macroeconomic fact that investment demands return, such must not be included in the equation of formulating a living wage, or even a minimum wage for that matter,” the petitioners said, adding that “wages are exclusively under the ambit of laborers, to the exclusion of employers.”

Besides, they added that there are already myriad of laws protecting investment and profit of the employers that they should no longer be allowed to “hijack what is left of the workingman–fixing of wages.”

The said law also violates the equal protection clause of the Constitution as well as the Article 135 and 248 of the Labor Code which frowns on labor discrimination.

Petitioners said of the 62,189,000 laborers, only 207,507 are covered by collective bargaining agreement (CBA).

“This means that virtually most of Filipino laborers do not have bargaining power over their employers. That is why living wage legislation is important. The urgency of striking down RA 6727 cannot be stressed further. The government must step in to provide for an adequate living wage for the 99.9966 percent of Filipino laborers. Without such legislation, Filipino laborers will always be left at the mercy of unscrupulous employers and subject to exploitation and discrimination,” the petition read.

Petitioners include Ugnayan ng Maralita Laban sa Kahirapan (UMALAB KA) Partylist, senatorial candidate Walden Bello, National Federation of Labor (NFL), Solidarity of Independent and General Labor Organizations (SIGLO), Froilan Caratihan, Rusty Dela Cruz, Emmanuel Flores Cavanas and Shiela Baylosis.