Top Stories Wage hike to benefit only 5M of 34M workers

QUEZON CITY, Philippines - Only five million of 34 million Filipino workers, or about 15 percent of the total labor force, will benefit from a wage increase, while more than 28 million workers would be left to cope with the rising prices of goods.

This was the assessment released on Wednesday by Ciriaco Lagunzad, executive director of the National Wage and Productivity Commission (NWPC).

According to Lagunzad, the wage increase will not be across the board – that is, only minimum wage earners will get pay hikes determined by the regional wage boards. And those earning more than P350 a day will not be covered the increase.

The revelation prompted two groups to remark that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was merely trying to boost her sagging popularity when she ordered last Monday regional wage boards to implement a wage hike.

This was the view presented in statement issued on Wednesday by the Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) and the Unyon ng mgaManggagawa sa Agrikultura (UMA).

The five million workers, the groups said, would not include the bulk of minimum wage earners representing organized and unorganized labor.

"Once again, President Arroyo is taking the Filipino workers to another rollercoaster ride – and to her world of make-believe," Pamalakaya national chairman Fernando Hicap said. "Her call for a wage hike last Monday is fake and was meant to counter the sharp drop in her approval rating.

"Hicap said what workers – both in private and public sectors badly – need a P 125 across-the-board pay hike to cope with the rising prices of food and other necessities.

The two groups said the P350 minimum wage is actually worth P245.61 today based on the present inflation rate.

Based on NWPC findings, each family of six needs P768 per day to survive in Metro Manila. The current P350 minimum wage, which is regularly received non-agricultural workers, is way below of the required amount for a family of six to survive.

The Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) has the lowest minimum wage, pegged at P200 a day. A family of six in that region needs P 1,008 a day to survive. But the nominal basic pay of P 200 if translated to a real wage would only be P136.

"Arroyo merely wants to divide the labor sector by announcing wage increase for 15 percent of the population, and denying 85 percent of the country’s labor force of their much needed pay hike," Hicap said.

The wage hike would not cover the 600,000 fish workers in the commercial and aquaculture sectors.

On behalf of agricultural workers, UMA national chairperson Rene Galang, a Hacienda Luisita worker, had this to say: "Mrs. Arroyo merely gave false hopes out of her empty promise. Anyway agricultural workers do not believe her, because for every 10 promises she made, 11 are broken according to her track record as enemy of labor and willing puppet of foreign and local capitalists." -





source : D’Jay Lazaro, GMANews.TV