Workers seek wage hike anew amid rising inflation

Workers are seeking another wage increase as well as non-wage interventions to cushion the impact of rising inflation.

Labor coalition Nagkaisa said workers are in dire need of a pay hike to augment their shrinking purchasing power.

Workers in the National Capital Region (NCR) have already lost some P80 in the value of their daily wage because of inflation, according to Nagkaisa spokesman Renato Magtubo.

“It is but right to have P100 wage hike in the first 100 days (of the Marcos administration),” Magtubo said partly in Filipino, noting that those 100 days were marked by the unmitigated rise in prices of goods and services.

He added that the P100 pay hike that workers are seeking is merely for the recovery of the lost value of wages due to inflation and not yet for the rise in workers’ standard of living, which is only possible through a living wage in the range of P1,200 to P1,300 a day.

The current daily minimum wage in the NCR is P570, but Magtubo said its real value today is only P488.

The labor leader stressed that the situation will be more difficult in other regions as inflation is higher in areas outside of the NCR.

The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP), however, would rather ask the government to extend non-wage interventions to help workers cope with rising inflation.

“Let’s address the basics first. We are stressing non-wage intervention as requiring the economic managers to address the reality of food inflation and energy inflation as the current drivers of a spike in inflation,” TUCP vice president Luis Corral said.

“Now that a Cabinet clean-up is happening, it may also be time for our President to look into the composition of the so-called economic team,” Corral added.

The government should at least provide affordable basic commodities through price control and the expansion of the Department of Trade and Industry’s Diskwento caravan and the Department of Agriculture (DA)’s Kadiwa mobile rice stores, according to the TUCP official.

He said the government must also ensure simple but nutritious meals to address growing malnutrition.

He added that planting vegetables in the backyard or urban gardening must be promoted, with the DA giving free seeds.

“We also call on the expansion of the free transportation program – the Carousel,” Corral said.

The TUCP also suggested holding a broad summit to address food inflation and the power sector.

13th-month pay

Meanwhile, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) was urged to enter into a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with local government units to require employers to release the 13th-month pay of their workers on or before Dec. 24 or face the cancellation of their business permits.

During the hearing of the Senate labor and employment committee last Tuesday, Sen. Raffy Tulfo said the DOLE should forge MOAs with the business permits and licensing office (BPLO) to block the renewal of business permits of non-compliant and non-paying employers.

“It’s Christmastime. This is the time of the year when our workers are eager to receive their 13th-month pay, but what often happens is that these are not given to them because their employers dupe and steal from them,” Tulfo said in Filipino.

Under the law, employees must receive their 13th month pay on or before Dec. 24 of each year and yet, despite a law in place, he observed that many Filipino employers are not paying their workers the government-mandated compensation.

Tulfo, a veteran broadcaster and public servant who hosts “Wanted sa Radyo,” said he had already handled several complaints from aggrieved Filipino workers who did not receive their 13th-month pay.

The MOA should require companies renewing their business permits to first present evidence to the BPLO that they have already given their employees’ 13th-month pay and that it was released on time, according to the senator.

He told DOLE Assistant Secretary Leonard Constantine-Serrano that merely issuing advisories requiring employers to release their employees’ 13th-month pay will not work after the latter suggested releasing such reminders.

“Until (erring employers) are penalized, advisories are useless because even with the law on the 13thmonth pay, many employers still violate this. They need to experience the consequences of such violations so that they will act,” Tulfo said.

To alert employers about this MOA, the senator suggested that the DOLE issue an official statement before the media warning erring employers of the possible non-renewal of their business permits should they fail to comply with the agency’s order.