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News VOL. 2, No. 72
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FROM WAGE FREEZE TO WAGE CUTS:
Pnoy government pilots two-tier wage system By MARYA SALAMAT of Bulatlat.com
BEFORE May 1 this year, there was talk in Congress that the decade-long proposal to legislate a P125 ($2.99) minimum wage hike is finally nearing plenary consideration. The House Committee on Labor announced last March their imminent submission for plenary debates of the P125 wage hike bill. After holding public consultations, they concluded that indeed, Filipino workers both need and deserve the raise, and capitalists can afford it. But the Aquino government unveiled a new wage policy called two-tier wage system last May. Since then, we hear no more updates on wage hike legislation. Now, based on media reports, the
battle lines for wage hike seem to be drawn between the labor sector decrying the P30 ($0.72) staggered wage hike granted in the National Capital Region as paltry – but one they will take anyway – and the employers who want it rescinded. The real wages of Filipino workers have “f lattened,” or did not increase in real value, over the past decade, said the independent thinktank Ibon Foundation. It said that the wage orders have failed to make up for
lost purchasing power over the years, as prices increase without letup, led by price and rate hikes of products and services of deregulated strategic industries such as oil, utilities, healthcare, etc. Various labor groups cite this as reason for pressing for substantial wage hike via legislation. Another reason they often cite is the rising productivity and profits of companies in the Philippines. Employers shortsighted by profit-taking? Independent think-tank Ibon Philippines said in March that the economy can afford to grant the long-time demand for a P125 ($2.99) wage hike. In a study, it said that establishments, taken as a whole, would only take a 12-percent cut in their profits when they pay their workers an additional P125 ($2.99) across-the-board. Ibon’s research also showed that the net income of the country’s Top 1,000 corporations have steadily increased from P116.4 billion ($2.8-b) in 2001 to P804.1 Billion ($19.25-b) in 2010.
Southern Tagalog workers press for legislated P125 wage hike in labor day rally. (Photo courtesy of Pamantik-KMU / bulatlat.com)
But all these profit hikes proved inadequate still for the Employers’ Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP), who appealed the NCR wage order, calling the P30 ($0.72) Cost of Living Allowance (COLA) “confiscatory for employers,” “excessively unjustified,” and “not economically feasible.” The ECOP appeal drew condemnations from diverse labor groups, from the government-backed Trade Union
WEATHER UPDATE SOUTHWEST Monsoon affecting Northern and Central Luzon. Northern and Central Luzon will experience mostly cloudy skies with scattered rainshowers and thunderstorms becoming cloudy with widespread rains over the Western section which may trigger flashfloods and landslides. The rest of the country will be partly cloudy to cloudy with isolated rainshowers or thunderstorms. Moderate to strong winds blowing from the Southwest will prevail over Luzon and the coastal waters along these areas will be moderate to rough. Elsewhere, winds will be light to moderate coming from the South to Southwest with slight to moderate seas. SOURCE : PAGASA
Congress of the Philippines to the progressive labor center Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU), which described ECOP’s moves as the “highlight of its greed and irresponsibility.” Employers’ representatives in the NCR wage boards had reportedly refused to sign the wage order that granted P30 COLA. ECOP’s consternation probably stemmed from the fact that previously, Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz and President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III announced a lower than P30 ($0.72) pay hike. There is a reason why this NCR wage order granted a slightly higher COLA, said a labor think-tank. The “P30 ($0.72) COLA is a cheap come-on” for the Aquino government’s new wage policy, the two-tier wage
system,” said the Ecumenical Institute for Labor Education and Research (EILER) in a statement. This year marks the first time the regional tripartite wage and productivity boards are explicitly tasked by the government to issue wage orders supposedly linked to productivity. Though Labor Secretary Baldoz is proud of the new wage system, labor rights advocates and the progressive labor center Kilusang Mayo Uno have warned the working people that it is another deceptive way of denying workers a living wage. “It appears that the Aquino administration had hoped that the P30 COLA increase will make a productivitybased pay palatable WAGE/PAGE 9
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