President Rodrigo Duterte has been urged to certify as urgent a bill seeking to impose a national minimum wage of P750 in face of rising commodity prices blamed on the newly implemented Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion Law.
ACT Teachers Party-list Rep. Antonio Tinio told a forum this weekend in Quezon City his group in the House had filed a measure and challenged the Duterte administration to give the bill priority when Congress resumes session following the sine die adjournment.
In House Bill 7787, the seven-member Makabayan Bloc sought to apply the P750 national minimum wage to “all enterprises, regardless of location, size or industry classification.”
The Congress was on sine die adjournment from June 3 to July 23. Sessions will resume on July 24, when both chambers of the legislature will convene for the State of the Nation Address of Duterte.
This followed Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III’s statement on Tuesday that workers could expect an increase in their salaries in June to cushion the impact of rising costs of goods and services.
“The instructions of the President were very clear: to address the issue of rising prices,” Bello said in Filipino.
But he said the wage hike might not be as high as the P750 sought by labor groups, because that could result in fewer jobs as employers might be unable to absorb the higher cost.
Noting the urgency of the situation, Bello said the regional wage boards had been ordered to speed up discussions on the wage adjustments.
He said representatives from the Department of Labor and Employment, Department of Finance, Department of Trade and Industry, National Economic and Development Authority, and Land Transportation and Franchising Regulatory Board would meet with labor groups on Wednesday, June 5 to tackle their demand for higher pay.
He said demands for a higher national minimum wage must go through Congress.
“The President said the immediate need can be met by the wage boards. In the long term, Congress can address the issue of the minimum wage,” Bello said.
The biggest labor federation on Tuesday rejected the P18 to P23 wage increase proposed by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and the Employers Confederation of the Philippines.
Alan Tanjusay, spokesman for the Associated Labor Unions-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines said that while labor groups are asking for P800 across-the-board daily minimum wage for all workers nationwide, the P1,200 a day is the right amount needed by a family to live above poverty line.
The labor group said it welcomed Duterte’s move to order the 17 regional wage boards to hold emergency meetings amid extraordinary increases in the prices of commodities and surges in the cost of services.
“We urge the businessmen and the government to desist from pre-empting the wage board process by issuing statements as to how much the wage board can decide. We urge employers and business owners to listen to poor’s appeal for equality and do not disrespect their struggle for better lives. Let us not provoke them with these unnecessary and uncalled for statements,” Tanjusay said in a statement.
“Let us stop insulting these aspirations and avoid making jokes to the poor,” he said.
The group is urging employers and business owners to respect the proposed P800 and P750 wage hike proposals because it is the aspirations of the millions of impoverished Filipinos left behind by economic growth to live decent lives.
BSP Deputy Governor Diwa Guinigundo said the wage board can only grant a P18-P20 increase in daily minimum wage.
ECOP’s Edgardo Lacson, on one hand, also said employers can only afford P23.
The ALU-TUCP supports House Bill 7787 which proposes a uniform P750 national minimum wage.
Tanjusay said they are throwing their support behind the bill because it needs an additional push since many lawmakers represent the vested interests of employers.