THE country’s largest labor group said it will no longer file any wage petitions in Metro Manila and other regions next month to give way to pending legislation in Congress raising minimum wages nationwide.
“We will not file [wage petitions] in the regions because we already filed a new wage increase bill,” Trade Union Congress of the Philippine (TUCP) Assistant General Secretary Vicente C. Camilon Jr. told the BusinessMirror in an interview on Thursday.
Party-list Rep. Raymond Mendoza of TUCP filed on Tuesday House Bill (HB) 7805 to implement a P320 increase on all prevailing minimum wage rates in the country.
TUCP said the bill is based on their supposed wage petition in Metro Manila to give workers their due share from the country’s economic growth and restore the lost value in the current minimum wage rate, which has been eroded by inflation.
Camilon said the breakdown of their proposed wage hike is as follows: P35.15 from government-mandated deductions like Social Security System premium; P145 for the “equity supplement” of workers in the last 29 years since Republic Act (RA) 6727, or the Wage Rationalization Act, took effect; P62.09 for rise in the cost of living based from the computation of the National Wages and Productivity Commission (NWPC).
Camilon added the new round of wage increases aims to provide minimum wage earners nationwide a fighting chance to “survive” the rising cost of living.
The TUCP official said they decided to use their wage increase computation for the National Capital Region in the bill to ensure even workers in other regions will be given proper compensation for their contribution to the economy.
“Why did we propose a P320 [increase] even in other regions? Because there are more incidents of poverty in the rural areas,” Camilon said.
He added they opted to bring the wage hike issue to Congress instead of the regional wage boards after the latter has failed to implement significant wage hikes in the past.
“How much did the wage boards able to grant before? Only P10, P15 and even P21. Those are not substantial increases,” Camilon said.
TUCP filed HB 7805, a day after the Makabayan Bloc in Congress filed HB 7787 implementing a P750 national minimum wage.
Higher chance
While TUCP said it also supports HB 7787, it said it is less likely to passed into law since it will set all existing minimum wage rates to P750.
“In our proposed bill, the current rates will be retained but will only be increased by P320,” Camilon said.
Despite multiple attempts from lawmakers and labor groups, no legislated wage hike for the private sector was implemented since RA 6727, which transferred the minimum wage-setting power of Congress to the regional wage boards, took effect.
TUCP Vice President Luis Manuel Corral, however, said they are more confident their proposed measure will be passed into law this time around.
“We take it as positive sign that some senators have already said they will support wage increase like Sen. Loren Legarda. It also helps that election is now just around the corner…now that is a national problem…it is going to affect everybody’s poll and approval numbers,” Corral said.
He also said there will be even higher chances of the passage of the pending wage legislation if it will get the support of President Duterte.
Employer reaction
In response to the concerns of the Employers Confederation of the Philippines (Ecop) that wage hike will trigger mass displacement, Camilon said this is unlikely due to the country’s growing economy.
“[Labor] productivity and GDP [Gross domestic product] has been increasing in previous years, while real wages continue to decline…. This is why employers could afford this,” Camilon said.
Real wage is wage adjusted to the effects of inflation.
No less than the International Labor Organization (ILO) noted in its Decent Work Country Diagnostics: Philippines 2017 report that the growth of real wages in the country is “slow and lagging behind GDP growth.”
“The average real daily basic pay of wage and salary workers in 2005 was about P259. In 2015 it was P268. Though inflation rate in 2014 [1.4 percent] was lower than in 2005 [6.5 percent], the minimal growth of real wage in spite of strong GDP growth means the well-being of wage earners improved little, underscoring noninclusive growth, especially for low-paid wage workers,” ILO said.