Says it will act on pay hike by April, push subsidy despite ‘stretched’ national budget
The Department of Labor and Employment will continue to push for a P24 billion-wage subsidy that could support minimum wage workers for three months even as the country’s economic managers were lukewarm to the proposal, citing the government’s overstretched budget.
DOLE said it will also decide on pending petitions to raise the minimum wage across the country before May.
“We remain vigilant on the effects of the Ukraine-Russia crisis, especially on the rising cost of fuel and energy that may affect industries that are still reeling from the effects of the pandemic…We are still pushing for the approval of the proposed wage subsidy for workers that will preserve jobs and ease the financial burden of selected minimum wage earners,” the labor department said in a statement.
“Also, we have enjoined the Regional Tripartite Wage and Productivity Boards to review petitions for wage hikes and work for the speedy resolutions on the same,” it added.
Labor Assistant Secretary Dominique Tutay said there are at least six regions, including Metro Manila, where there are pending wage hike petitions.
“Regional wage boards are working on these. We have given the guidance to them, and Secretary [Silvestre III] Bello has a marching order to expedite the process. Before May, we will know the decision,” Tutay said.
The labor union alliance Unity for Wage Increase Now! Has filed a petition for a P750 minimum wage.
The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP), on the other hand, sought for a P470 increase in the daily minimum wage in Metro Manila to increase it to P1,007.
Bello earlier said the current P537 daily minimum wage in the NCR may no longer be enough to cover commodities such as food, electricity, and water bills.
On Friday, Finance Assistant Secretary Paolo Alvarez said the government does not have enough funds to provide a bigger subsidy for the country’s minimum-wage earners amid skyrocketing prices of oil products and basic commodities.
Alvarez said all the government can afford now is the P200 monthly subsidy—or at P6.6 a day—for low-income households.
“We are really stretched. If we can barely afford the budget of more than P200 [for low-income households], I guess you know the answer to a P24-billion proposal,” she said.
Aside from the P33 billion earmarked for the P200 monthly relief for select indigent households, the only subsidies available are for the transport and the agricultural sectors.
The government has earlier allocated P5 billion to assist public transport drivers with a P6,500 subsidy for two months, and a separate P1-billion budget for fuel discounts to benefit the agricultural sector bearing the brunt of increased oil prices.
TUCP president Raymond Democrito Mendoza said they sent a letter to President Duterte “to direct the RTWPBs to act swiftly on our demand for a minimum wage increase.”
“The 5 million minimum wage workers are now fast becoming the new poor. It has been years since the last wage increase, and as prices of basic commodities continue to spike, minimum wage earners will soon no longer be able to cope,” he said.
“The lack of a just wage, sufficient to support the daily needs of a Filipino family, is a social powder keg just waiting to explode,” Mendoza added.
Legislating for a national minimum wage increase will take too long and will raise false expectations, he said.
