Walk the talk.
So saying, the Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP) on Wednesday called on politicians, who defended the P25 wage hike in Metro Manila, to try living by with only the existing minimum wage to spend.
BMP Chairman Leody de Guzman issued the challenge to Vice President Maria Leonor G. Robredo, Presidential Spokesman and Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador S. Panelo and Kabayan Party-list Rep. Ron P. Salo for suggesting workers should just accept the wage increase.
Instead of such empathy-laden statements, de Guzman called for more “proactive” and “concrete” actions from the said officials to help minimum-wage earners in the National Capital Region (NCR) cope with rising cost of living.
“Come down from your ivory towers and end your lip service of being pro-poor. If you truly believe that P25 is better than nothing, take the minimum-wage challenge or join us in the streets to demand our fair share of the social wealth we created,” de Guzman said in a news statement.
Labor groups unanimously rejected the P25 wage hike approved by the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board-NCR (RTWPB-NCR) since they claimed it is less than the amount needed by workers to offset the effect of rising inflation in Metro Manila.
Based from the study of IBON Foundation, the new wage rate in NCR is still below the needed income of a family of five in NCR to survive.
“The P537 minimum wage is P488 or 47.6 percent short of the P1,025 family living wage or the amount that a family of five needs for decent living as of October 2018,” the independent research group said in a separate statement.
Citing data from the Philippine Statistics Authority, IBON Foundation also noted establishments in NCR could afford to increase daily minimum wage to P750 if they are generous enough to endure a reduction in profits.
“NCR firms with 20 or more employees had combined profits of P903 billion in 2015 and gave an average daily basic pay of P530…P750 will cost just P132 billion or 14.6 percent of employers’ profits,” IBON said.
Labor officials earlier said the approval of the RTWPB-NCR for a P25 wage hike was primarily determined by that capacity of employers to afford it.
To address the issue, the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines said it is now planning to file another wage petition at the regional wage board.