THE Associated Labor Unions has rejected the P16 wage increase offered by the wage board it described as way below the P184 pay raise filed by the labor group before the Regional Tripartite Wage and Productivity Board of the National Capital Region last month.
Last year, the labor group sought P154 wage increase but the wage board granted only P10.
The P16 is on top of the current P491 daily minimum wage the 6 million minimum wage earners working in 17 cities and municipalities in Metro Manila are receiving.
“The wage board [members] announced they are amenable to grant P16 in view of the P184 wage increase petition filed by ALU on June 6—a year after the effectivity period of the current P491 daily minimum wage rate had lapsed on June 2, 2017,” ALU spokesperson Alan Tanjusay said Monday.
The ALU filed a P184 wage increase petition to restore the real value of P491 which had been eroded by 27 percent in May 2017.
Records from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and National Wages and Productivity Commission as of May 25, 2017 show the purchasing power of P491 is P357.
Tanjusay said: “We reject the P16 wage hike being offered by the wage board. We rather urge the wage board to be relevant and responsive to the needs of workers and their families by raising the workers’ daily pay to P675.
“The workers who helped built the country’s consistent high economy growth through their toil and sweat does not deserve P16.”
He added: “A sinking purchasing power of workers’ daily wage means lowering of the quality and quantity of nutritious food that is so vital to workers’ productivity at his work and to his family.
“A lowered purchasing power will also affect the health of the children.”
The ALU is the biggest labor federation in the country. It has large union members in services, manufacturing, and agriculture plantations working in both public and private sectors.
Tanjusay said they expected the wage board to announce its final decision on the wage petition next week which is composed of two representatives from employers’ group, two from labor organizations, and one each from Department of Labor and Employment, National Economic and Development Authority and the Department of Trade and Industry.
“It’s frustrating for us to file wage increase petition every time but the wage board is irrelevant and irresponsive [by giving only] 10, 15, 20 pesos. But the ALU has to do this every time because millions of minimum wage earners are voiceless and powerless. We have to represent them in the process,” Tanjusay added.