Labor groups laud Senate approval of ₱100 wage hike

Militant labor group Partido Manggagawa (PM) said that the Senate approval of the ₱ 100 legislated wage hike is a welcome relief.

“We will wait for the House of Representatives if they can walk their counterpart bills which are higher than the Senate’s. Huwag sanang ang grasya ay maging bato pa kung aatras ang Kamara. Magagalit ang manggagawa. The battle now shifts to Batasan,” said Dennis Derige, PMCebu spokesman.

The group also asserted that all workers, formal and informal, will gain whether directly or indirectly from the legislated wage hike, contrary to the claims of the Employers’ Confederation of the Philippines that only 10% of “formal workers” will benefit.

Derige said that minimum wage earners will get the ₱100 wage hike in full while other workers in the formal sector will gain a portion of ₱ 100 through wage distortion, meaning that wages above the minimum will have to be adjusted since the floor was raised.

He said that workers in the informal economy will also benefit since formal workers with more purchasing power will patronize their products and services, since it’s the ordinary wage earners and not rich professionals who buy from street vendors, eat in carenderias, ride in jeepneys, and buy from wet markets.

Derige added that this increase in wages will be a great improvement in the living conditions and needs of contractual workers and their families.

“They will finally have the capacity to meet their everyday basic needs, and the workers will be relieved of being burdened with debt. It is obvious that due to the lack of living wages for daily needs, the workers have lived in debt because their basic salaries are not enough,” Derige added.

ALSA Kontraktwal Cebu also welcomed the final reading of the ₱100 Wage Increase Bill and challenged congressmen to make laws relating to wage increases as it has been the long-time plight of the workers to recover the value that capitalists have stolen from their labor.

“It is time for the government to see our strong demand to increase wages,” it said.

The alliance also demands the passing of other bills on increased wages, such as House Bill 4898, which calls for the return of the National Minimum Wage in the Philippines, and House Bill 7568, which seeks a ₱750 across-the-board wage increase for the private sector.

There is also a strong call for a regularization bill, such as the Security of Tenure Bill, for the protection of employment security.