The P40 enhance within the each day minimal wage of personal sector staff within the National Capital Region (NCR) is just not sufficient to compensate for the rising price of residing within the area, labor teams stated Friday.
In an announcement, the Federation of Free Workers (FFW) stated that whereas it welcomes the accredited wage enhance “as a small victory for our dedicated labor force,” it added that “the sentiment of disappointment is palpable among many of our workers.”
“The increment falls significantly short of the more than P100 wage recovery that our labor force had been anticipating. It also fails to reflect the escalating cost of living in Metro Manila. As such, we stress that the struggle for a fair, living wage is far from over,” FFW stated.
Partido Manggagawa (PM) shared the same sentiment, saying the wage enhance “is way below the P100 – P1,140 wage hike petitions filed by several labor groups since December last year.”
“We are disappointed as the order not only came late but also because it was not the workers but primarily the side of business that was considered in this decision,” PM stated.
“To illustrate categorically, the P40 increase can only buy a kilo of a regular-milled rice or pretend it can for 2 kilos of that imaginary P20/kg promised by the President. The increase may not even be enough to cover the increase in the prices of onions,” the group added.
On Thursday, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) introduced that NCR’s Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board issued on June 26, 2023 Wage Order No. NCR-24, which elevated the each day minimal wage for non-agriculture and agriculture sector staff by P40.
The adjustment introduced the each day minimal wage in NCR to P610.00 from the present P570.00 for non-agriculture sector staff.
For these within the agriculture sector, service, and retail institutions using 15 or fewer staff in addition to producers repeatedly using lower than 10 staff, the each day minimal wage was hiked to P573.00 from P533.00.
The order is about to take impact on July 16, 2023.
FFW, nonetheless, stated the wage hike could function “a stepping stone towards our ultimate goal—a ?150 legislated wage hike nationwide.”
“We are therefore calling on our members, workers, and the broader public to rally behind the higher wage proposal currently being scrutinized in both the Senate and the House of Representatives. This legislation is critical for drastically improving the economic realities of our workers and their families,” FFW stated.
The PM, likewise, stated that the “wage battle now shifts to Congress for a P150 – P750 legislated across-the-board wage hike.”
In the Senate, Senator Jinggoy Estrada, who chairs the Committee on Labor, Employment and Human Resources Development, stated they are going to nonetheless push for the legislated wage hike regardless of the approval of a P40 enhance within the each day minimal wage in Metro Manila.
Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno has stated elevating the minimal wage by P150 throughout the Philippines would enhance inflation by 1.4 proportion factors.
Diokno made the comment after a proposal for a legislated P150 minimal wage hike was accredited on the committee degree within the Senate in May. —KBK, GMA Integrated News
Source: www.gmanetwork.com
