The country’s labor groups are united in calling on President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to certify as urgent the P200 legislative daily wage increase for Filipino workers now, National Congress of Unions in the Sugar Industry of the Philippines (NACUSIP) President Ronald C. dela Cruz said on Wednesday.
The nation marks Labor Day on Thursday, May 1.
NACUSIP and its allied organizations – the Philippine Agricultural, Commercial, Industrial Workers Union and the Congress of Independent Organizations joins the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines and the National Wage Coalition composed of the Kilusang Mayo Uno, Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino and Nagkaisa Labor Coalition in calling for the legislated wage hike, dela Cuz said.
.NACUSIP and its allies downplayed the efforts of the Marcos administration of providing “candies” to the Filipino workers through job fairs, rice subsidies, or free train rides, which they said will only benefit workers in the National Capital Region.
“Instead of giving us candies and band-aid solutions, the President should and must certify as urgent the P200 legislative wage hike that is due to Filipino workers. We need real appreciation not just sugar-coating lip service”, dela Cruz.
The Senate last year approved a legislative wage increase of P100 and the House of Representatives early this year, approved a P200 daily wage hike on second reading sponsored by the TUCP Partylist, he said.
It should be noted that the last legislative wage increase by Congress was in 1989 or 36 years ago. It is the right time now to urgently enact this legislative wage increase, de la Cruz said.
“This legislative wage increase rises above political party lines and trade union ideologies because the issue of wages is personal to every Filipino worker,” he said.
The House of Representatives and the Senate unanimously supported the wage hike proposal, while the major labor and trade union formations took a single stand to support this measure. Can’t the President read between the lines? de la Cruz asked.
“Certify as urgent the passage of the P200 legislative wage hike now. It is time to give back to the workers through better wages”, he said.
The Partido Manggagawa also called on the government to complement the roll out of the P20 subsidized rice with certification of the P200 wage hike if it is serious in responding to worsening hunger and poverty in the country.
“Offering cheap rice is not enough, as Malacanang seems to think. A P200 wage hike plus P20 subsidized rice are initial steps to alleviate the conditions of poor and hungry Filipinos. We ask President Bong Bong Marcos to certify as urgent the pending P200 salary increase bill in Congress,” Judy Ann Miranda, PM secretary general, said.*