An opposition lawmaker on Tuesday pushed for the passage of a bill abolishing the Regional Tripartite Wage Boards.
Akbayan Party-list Rep. Tom Villarin said House Bill 8616 proposed to replace the National Wages and Productivity Commission regional wage boards for being “irrelevant” and “non-responsive” to workers.
Villarin said that only four of 17 regions nationwide had implemented wage hikes in October.
“While inflation rates from Regions II, IV-B, and Bicol registered much higher than NCR, only measly sums were granted to the workers,” Villarin said at a news conference.
“The P25 daily wage hikes in NCR do not compensate for higher cost of living wages,” he added.
Villarin also denounced the government’s ‘callousness’ with the latter’s plan to tax health premiums of workers through Memorandum Circular 50-2018 issued by the Bureau of Internal Revenue.
“While inflation affects all workers nationwide, even registering higher rates outside NCR, these regional wage boards only approve wage hikes as recommended by employers. Its composition is stacked with employers and government representatives who always favor the former,” Villarin said.
“It is high time we abolish these archaic and anti-worker wage boards made into a law in 1989,” he added.