Workers in Western Visayas will mark a bleak International Labor Day on Sunday, May 1, without a much needed wage hike, because of a deliberate effort to delay it, Wennie Sancho, Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board (RTWPB) labor representative, said Friday, April 29.
“The workers are spiraling in despair, their wages have not kept up with the unabated increases in the prices of petroleum products, basic goods and services,” Sancho said at a press conference at the Negros Press Club in Bacolod City.
A daily minimum wage of from P450 to P750 in Western Visayas is being pushed, but management is asking that any increase be deferred until the end of the year because they have yet to recover from the pandemic that brought “the business sector to its knees”.
The current WV minimum wage is from P310 to P395 per day, depending on the industry classification as provided under Wage Order 25.
Sancho accused the management and government representatives on the RTWPB of delaying the deliberations to May 12 and 13 after the elections.
If the management and government representatives could not attend the board meetings in April, they could have sent their representatives, he said.
“I believe the delay in the deliberations of the wage petition was deliberate…The government wanted to water down the wage issue and erase the national character of the wage struggle. The wage issue was taken for granted despite the fact that it is badly needed by the workers”, Sancho said.
The holding of the wage deliberations after the elections is “a form of oppression and an added form of injustice,” Sancho added.
This is display of government’s indifference to the plight of the poor workers, Sancho said.
“The loud outcry of the victorious politicians will overshadow and downgrade the wage increase issue,” he added.*