New wage rates an insult to workers — KMU

3 MIN READ

By ALDWIN QUITASOL
www.nordis.net

BAGUIO CITY — “Fooling the hungry workers and their families is really really bad and it is happening under this administration who claims that the people are his bosses,” says Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) Cordillera spokesperson Vicente Dilem.

Dilem said that the new minimum wage rates issued by the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board of the Department of Labor and Employment (RTWPB-DOLE) Cordillera is an insult to the workers who are struggling to stretch their pegged wages to survive amidst the continuous price hike of basic commodities and services. He said that the wage board again decided on how much the workers should receive for their hard work without consulting them.

On May 14, the RTWPB issued wage order 17 prescribing the new minimum wage rates of private sector workers in the Cordillera Region. According to the statement of the wage board, public consultations were conducted for the six provinces of the region including the City of Baguio. The board claimed that after a series of deliberations on the results of the public consultations and studies on the socio-economic conditions prevailing in the region, RTWPB has determined that the Two-Tiered Wage System (TTWS) as a guideline for minimum wage adjustments is well appreciated by both workers and employers. According to the board, there is a need to adjust the minimum wage levels of workers in the region and the need to assist the micro enterprises providing them more opportunities to grow and therefore increase their contribution to the region’s economic development and employment.

Dilem said that as far as they know, the consultations were limited to only a few workers who were actually invited. He said that union officials they talked to were not even notified that they are in such consultations.

He criticized RTWPB for announcing that the TTWS is appreciated by the workers. He said that it is most likely that only the employers are happy because of this. He explained that actually it is is an additional attack on the minimum wage. He added that TTWS is introducing a floor wage lower than the existing minimum wage levels and is based on the government’s reduced poverty threshold, not on the cost of basic necessities needed by workers and their families to live decently each day.

He said that promise of increases based on the workers’ productivity could only be illusory, as these will be set by the employers in collaboration with the regional wage boards.

Dilem also hit DOLE for using micro-enterpreneurs to justify the small wage increases they are issuing. He said that small and medium enterprises have the biggest chances of survival if only the government prioritizes the struggling small businesses instead of giving tax holidays among other favors to the big capitalists.

He said that if only the government does not drain these small businessmen with high taxes and instead assist them accordingly to ensure that their businesses develop, it will not be any burden at all to them to appraise their employees’ wages.

“As for the workers,” he said, they deserve decent wages and benefits.

In the latest wage order, the daily minimum wage rates for Baguio City, Municipalities of La Trinidad, Itogan, Sablan and Tuba (BLISTT) is P285 for non-agriculture and retail service with 11 workers and above. P270 for workers in the agriculture and retail or service with 10 workers and below. While P255 for workers of non-agricultural sectors and P255 for agricultural workers in other parts of the Cordillera Region.

Dilem said that the board just added P5 to the past minimum wage rate which was P280. He also said that Cost of Living Allowance (COLA) for non-agricultural workers which was P37 last year was reduced to only P15 this year. The computation of the new minimum wage rate is P270 basic pay plus P15 COLA. The COLA for agricultural workers of BLISTT and other parts of the region was also cut by more than a half.

He said that they are still pushing for a P16,000 monthly minimum wage for both private sector workers and government employees across the board nationwide. He said each Filipino family actually needs more than P32,000 to survive for a month. He said this should be approved by legislation and not by wage boards.

He said that they call for the abolition of regional wage boards. He explained that the regionalization of wages being decided by regional wage boards since their creation in 1989 has deprived the workers of decent wages and instead widened the gaps among wage levels in each region of the country.

He stressed that what the Filipino workers need is to be treated fairly the government as they work hard everytime they enter the workplace to ensure the continuity of the country’s economy. # nordis.net