THE government on Thursday approved a P21 wage hike for workers in Metro Manila after three months of evaluating wage-hike petitions, according to a labor group.
In a statement, the Associated Labor Unions-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (ALU-TUCP) reported that the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board-National Capital Region (RTWPB-NCR) has green lighted the increase for Metro Manila minimum-wage earners.
“The wage board [on Thursday] announced a P21 daily wage increase on top of the existing
P491 daily minimum wage for more than 6 million minimum-waged workers in 17 cities and municipalities in Metro Manila,” the statement read. Due to the new wage-hike order, the ALU-TUCP said minimum wage in Metro Manila will become P512 effective in October.
The BusinessMirror tried to confirm this report from the RTWPB-NCR and the Department of Labor and Employment. However, efforts of the BusinessMirror to verify the new wage-hike order were not met with appropriate response from the two agencies.
According to the ALU-TUCP, the P21- wage hike is not enough for minimum-wage earners to cope up with the rising prices of goods and increasing costs of services. “P21 is only 4.27 percent of the current P491, so it obviously did not lift workers out of poverty. Workers who helped built a high economic growth of 6.9-percent average GDP do not deserve this very small amount,” ALU-TUCP Spokesman Alan A. Tanjusay said.
“We have no other choice but to come and ask President Duterte to grant our long-standing request to him to provide a P500 monthly [conditional cash transfer]-like cash voucher subsidy to minimum-waged workers who helped build our high economic growth,” Tanjusay added. According to the ALU-TUCP, the proposal for a P500 monthly subsidy was submitted to the President in April. The labor group said the cash voucher, if granted, will be used by minimum-wage earners for purchasing rice, groceries and medicines.
The P21-wage hike is far less than what the ALU-TUCP petitioned in the wage board. The TUCP, for one, pushed for an across-the-board wage-hike increase of P259, while the ALU P184 and the Association of Minimum Wage Earners-Philippine Trade and General Workers Organization P175. The ALU-TUCP has two representatives in the wage board, namely, Angelita D. Señorin of the TUCP and lawyer Herman N. Pascua Jr. of the ALU.