Pay hike issue to DU30; peaceful protests okayed

LABOR groups led by the Associated Labor UnionsTrade Union Congress of the Philippines (ALU-TUCP) have moved to elevate the wage hike issue directly to President Duterte.

More please! The approved 121per-day pay hike is “kakarampot,” they said.

*** The President said he will tolerate all kinds of protests on Thursday, Sept. 21, in observance of the declaration of Martial Law in 1972.

Just make sure protests are “peaceful” or else… the Punisher warned.

*** ALU-TUCP spokesperson Alan Tanjusay said their group will no longer file an appeal before the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board-National Capital Region (RTWPB-NCR) which granted the new wage order.

To Malacañang and Digong we’ll go for mercy, they added.

*** ALU-TUCP, one of the three labor groups which filed their wage petitions last June, said they will just urge Duterte to grant the proposed P500 monthly government subsidy for minimum wage earners nationwide.

The subsidy will allow workers to cope with rising inflation and surging cost of living, they explained.

*** “The President has promised genuine change. Well, this is the right time to tilt the balance in favor of the workers who have been living way below the poverty standard, and fulfill his vow for real reforms,” Tanjusay said.

“(No to) the few elites who hoards the wealth of our country and control our democratic system,” he added.

*** Likewise, recognizing that the death of an immediate family member bears a significant emotional and psychological burden upon a family member, a House leader has proposed a 10-day bereavement leave with full pay to all employees in both the private and public sectors. More relief for workers, he said.

*** Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Raymund Villafuerte said a bereavement leave benefit system should be institutionalized to support employees in the public and private sectors in time of loss of an immediate member of the family.

.Employer’s discretion rule is unfair, he lamented.

*** “This scenario contradicts the state policy to provide employees with humane working conditions that foster their productivity and maintain their dignity, ” Villafuerte, vice chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations, explained.

Time to approve House Bill 6043 or the proposed Bereavement Leave Act of 2017, he appealed.

*** The President declared Sept. 21 as a day of protests for all sectors, saying anybody can exercise his/ her your right to protest against any issue provided they don’t violate the law, he said.

Freedom with responsibility or to jail you go, Duterte stressed.