Bayan Muna lawmaker: Denying wage hikes is ‘anti-worker and unjust’

A lawmaker has dispelled beliefs that the proposed nationwide wage hike is inflationary, saying it is “good for the working people and for the economy as whole.”

Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Isagani Zarate on Friday downplayed as “anti-workers, unjust, and erroneous” the argument that wages should not be raised because it is inflationary.

The militant lawmaker said “raising wages nationwide is good for the working people and for the economy as whole.”

“It is blatantly anti-worker and unjust to deny wage hikes because of the allegations that it will jack up prices. On the contrary prices have already been increasing for years but wages are stuck at some P500 in Metro Manila and worse P300 plus in many provinces even if the cost of living already skyrocketed to P1,200 for a family of six,” Zarate asserted in a statement.

He stressed that “demands for P750 national minimum wages are only meant to recover the eroded purchasing power of workers and employees due to rising price caused by monopoly overpricing, Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (Train) Law and other factors.”

“It is erroneous to insist that nationwide wage hikes is inflationary. Increases in wages will lead to decrease in profits of capitalist but won’t affect the basis of price which is the average labour time embodies in commodities,” he pointed out.

Zarate emphasized that “to say that nationwide wage hikes may jack up prices is “one-sided and half-lie.”

“Nationwide wages hikes may temporarily affect the prices of some commodities because of the increased purchasing power of workers and employees but this will be very temporary as profit-motivated capitalists will move to increase their production to meet the increased demands. Sooner than later, supply will be at par or may even exceed demands,” he further explained.

Moreover, he said nationwide wage hikes would “spur more production and create jobs as capitalists go where demands are high.”

Last Monday, the House Makabayan bloc filed House Bill 7787 seeking to increase the national minimum wage to P750 to “ease the suffering” of Filipinos amid the soaring prices of commodities.

Meanwhile, the Association of Labor Unions-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (ALU-TUCP), the country’s biggest confederation of workers’ groups, has called for the synchronization of all pay rates to a uniform P800 across-the-board daily minimum wage for all workers nationwide.

READ: Makabayan bloc seeks P750-minimum wage nationwide

Some lawmakers have also expressed concerns to halt the full implementation of Train Law as Filipinos deal with high prices of goods and services and with the country’s inflation rate shooting up to 4.3 percent in March and 4.5 in April.

READ: More senators join calls to suspend excise tax

Earlier, the Department of Economic Research of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said it projects the May inflation rate to continue increasing between the 4.6-5.4 percent range. /vvp

READ: May inflation may have spiked to as high as 5.4% — BSP economists