Labor group Associated Labor-Unions Trade Union Congress of the Philippines has urged the national wage board to grant the P184 wage hike petition for the 6 million minimum wage workers in Metro Manila which will convene today (Tuesday).
ALU-TUCP spokesperson Alan Tanjusay said the seven-man member are expected to announce within the day the amount of daily pay increase in view of labor groups’ wage hike petitions on top of the current daily wage of P491 a day.
The labor group filed a P184 wage increase petition to restore the real value of P491 which has eroded by 27 percent in May 2017.
“We are very pessimistic the board would grant a significant wage increase today. The board had always been ungenerous and insensitive in increasing the daily wage of workers,” Tanjusay said.
“What will happen is that employers’ and capitalists’ interests will again dictate the rate or amount of increase. And it will be inadequate to lift workers and their families out of poverty,” he said.
Earlier, the ALU rejected the P16 wage increase the wage board is offering to grant instead of the P184 the ALU has petitioned.
Records from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and National Wages and Productivity Commission as of May 25, 2017 showed that the purchasing power of P491 is P357. Meanwhile, the Family Income and Expenditures Survey by the Philippine Statistics Authority showed the daily amount needed by a family of five to be kept out of poverty in 2015 is P302.13 a day. The next survey is expected to be made public in the first quarter next year.
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.
Aside from filing wage increase petitions, ALU has served as workers’ representative as dialogue government and employers in tripartite policy-making and enforcement of government program for workers.
