AN official of the Associated Labor Unions-Trade Union Congress of the Philippine (ALU-TUCP) over the weekend said that growing inflation may prompt his group to demand for higher workers’ pay in Metro Manila.
In a media forum, ALU-TUCP Spokesman Alan Tanjusay said they will be submitting a supplementary petition before the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board-National Capital Region (RTWPB-NCR) today (Monday) to raise the amount of their previous wage petition to P334.
In June the TUCP, the umbrella labor federation of ALU, filed for a P320 across-the-board pay hike for minimum-wage earners to cope with the effect of the 5.2-percent inflation that time.
Tanjusay said the amount is no longer enough after nationwide inflation rate rose to 6.7 percent on September.
ALU-TUCP Policy and Advocacy Officer Lois Oliva explained that P31.74 of their P334 wage petition aims to offset the lost value of minimum wage in Metro Manila.
Based from the study conducted by ALU-TUCP, the “real” value of the P512 minimum-wage rate in the NCR for October is just P340, from P363 in the same period in 2017.
Oliva said P51.20 of their new wage petition covers the expected increase in the cost of living until the next round of wage hike in NCR in 2019.