EVEN workers earning above the minimum wage would benefit from the proposed P800 nationwide wage hike from labor groups, as this would give them a basis for seeking higher pay to avoid a wage distortion, labor advocates said over the weekend.
They advanced the view after higher officials directed the regional wage boards to start reviewing the rates in their respective regions, and a former labor undersecretary said the clamor to revert to a national, from the current region-wide wage setting, is a complicated initiative.
In an interview, Trade Union Congress of the Philippine (TUCP) Assistant General Secretary Vicente C. Camillion Jr. told the BusinessMirror the measure, if granted by the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Boards (RTWPB), will cause a wage distortion.
The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) defines a wage distortion as a “situation where a legislated increase in minimum wages results in the elimination or severe contraction of intentional quantitative differences in wage or salary rates between and among employee groups in an establishment so as to effectively obliterate the distinctions.”
“This will allow those earning above the minimum wage to negotiate for higher pay,” Camillon pointed out.
The TUCP official issued the statement after President Duterte and Labor Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III ordered the RTWPBs last week to review their existing wage rates.
However, even without instructions from its high-ranking officials, the National Wages and Productivity Commission (NWPC) reported the RTWPBs have already started reviewing their existing wage rates since it is part of their yearly mandate.
In fact, the RTWPBs in three regions—Western Visayas, Central Visayas and Davao region—are already processing the wage petitions submitted to them by concerned parties.
Latest data from NWPC said 59 percent (181) of the 308 wage orders it issued since 1990 were issued motu proprio, while only 41 percent (127) was based on wage petitions.
National, not region-wide wage: Not quickly doable
The Associated Labor Unions (ALU), an affiliate group of TUCP, has been urging the RTWPB to implement a “synchronized” P800 nationwide across-the-board wage hike to allow minimum-wage earners to cope with the impact of the first tranche of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) law.
ALU-TUCP blamed the rising cost of living on TRAIN and increases in the prices of crude in the international market.
“Because of these forces, the value of P512 daily minimum wage fell by P186 every day. The buying power of P512 is now only P326 a day,” ALU-TUCP Spokersman Alan Tanjusay said, referring the to daily minimum- wage rate in Metro Manila—currently the highest nationwide.
He said the P800 will raise the real wage of workers to P1,200, which he said is the minimum amount for a family of five to live above poverty.
“The government must now mitigate the worsening plight of workers and their families by providing safety nets while employers, on one hand, must immediately provide a substantial wage increase and save workers from falling into deeper destitution,” he added.
Partido Manggagawa Chairman Renato Magtubo agreed with the proposal of ALU-TUCP, but added it should be only a temporary measure until the government can restore its minimum wage-fixing mechanism to nationwide, from its current region-based.
Magtubo said the RTWBs should be abolished for failing to grant workers a significant wage hike.
“For the past three decades, wage orders by the regional boards are so low that, at present, [they] cannot offset the impact of the rising cost of living brought about by the TRAIN law and profiteering by unscrupulous employers,” Magtubo said.
He added region-based minimum- wage setting is also discriminatory to workers since it violates the principle of equal “pay for work of equal value.”
“Differentiating wage rates on the geographical location where a worker works is absurd. Why would an equally capacitated carpenter differ in minimum-wage rate in a construction firm because one works in Quezon City and the other in Bulacan?” Magtubo asked.
Legislated reform
Former Labor Undersecretary and University of the Philippines labor expert Rene Ofreneo, however, said the proposal will need to undergo legislation.
He said the Wage Rationalization Act of 1989 designates the RTWPBs in the issuance of wage orders nationwide. Prior to the passage of the said law, the national minimum wage was determined by Congress.
“Things will not be that easy [for a nationalized minimum wage]. If labor groups want to push for one, they would have to unify and lobby for it [in Congress],” Ofreneo said in a phone interview.
Magtubo and Camillon said labor groups are already preparing their respective studies supporting the pending bills.
Magtubo said they are conducting studies on satisfying the constitutional mandate of granting workers a living wage, while Camillion said they will form a committee or study group for the proposed national wage setting.
“So if you combine all these studies, it will help in fast-tracking legislation for the national minimum wage,” Magtubo said.
Magtubo, however, stressed the success of their initiative will also depend on President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s support for it.
He said they are now calling on Duterte to fulfill his promise during his dialogue with labor leaders earlier this year of abolishing “provincial rates.”
“Now is the perfect time to turn mere words into presidential action,” Magtubo said.