The Kapatiran ng mga Unyon at Samahang Manggagawa (Kapatiran) has rejected the P35 to P50 wage increase for Calabarzon areas, saying it failed to meet the principal demands for wage recovery and living wages in the region which amount ranges from P100 to P750 per day.
The increase, which takes effect on September 24, sets the new minimum wage in the region between P385 to P520 for the non-agricultural sector and from P385 to P479 for the agriculture sector.
“It is too little and it cannot even buy a kilo of rice. Despite the wage increase, the real wage value of the minimum wage today in Region 4-A is only P428.80,” Kapatiran chair Rey Almendras said.
Almendras also criticized the numerous wage classifications in the region that make enforcement and compliance very complicated, notwithstanding the blanket exemption available for firms employing not more than 10 workers.
Kapatiran argued that the wage hike in Calabarzon, and earlier the P40 in NCR, reflects the structural defects of the prevailing wage system in the country under RA 6727 where the financial health of employers is given more importance than the workers’ capacity to live and their right to a rising standard of living.
Kapatiran feared that the NCR and Calabarzon wage orders will become the template for other regions, thus, the need to shift to fight for a legislated wage hike and reforms in the wage-setting mechanisms in the country.
Pending at Congress are the P150 to P750 wage hike bills. Senators, including Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri, vowed to pass the measure, while the House of Representatives has yet to conduct hearings on the pending wage hike bills.
Workers in the Calabarzon region will receive a P35 to P50 increase in their daily minimum wage this month, the Department of Labor and Employment said.
Calabarzon’s Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board issued the wage hike order on Sept. 1. The order is to take effect 15 days from its publication or on Sept. 24.
Non-agricultural workers in the region will see their pay increase to P520 per day.
On the other hand, service and retail establishments employing 10 or fewer workers and manufacturing establishments regularly employing less than 10 workers will see their daily pay rise to P385.
Meanwhile, agricultural workers in Calaca and Carmona will see an increase of P89 in their daily wage due to their localities’ reclassification as component cities.
The new rates are expected to benefit over 719,000 minimum wage earners in the region, DOLE said.
DOLE said this will result in a “comparable 23 percent increase in wage-related benefits covering 13th-month pay, service incentive leave (SlL), and social security benefits such as SSS, PhilHealth, and Pag-lBlG.”
“About 1.6 million full-time wage and salary workers earning above the minimum wage may also indirectly benefit as a result of upward adjustments at the enterprise level arising from the correction of wage distortion,” it added.
In June, the wage board approved a P40 hike in the minimum wage in Metro Manila.