A Negros Church and labor leader welcomed the Senate’s approval on third and final reading of a landmark bill proposing a P100 increase in the daily minimum wage of workers in the private sector.
Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri said the passage of Senate Bill No. 2534 “is a big step towards the eventual enactment of increased wages, but the fight is not over yet”.
Zubiri, who has roots in Negros, said “to those who are against this: let’s listen to the Filipino workers. Let’s give them immediate relief in the face of high commodity prices”.
San Carlos Bishop Gerardo Alminaza said anything that will redound to the good of the workers is welcome. “Without labor, capital will not grow”, he said.
Wennie Sancho, secretary-general of the General Alliance of Workers Associations, also said the approval of Senate Bill No. 2534 is a welcome development.
This is good because it will increase the workers purchasing power that will hike consumer spending and pump prime the economy, Sancho said.
The apprehension of the business sector is unfounded, he said.
But Sancho also said he expects the P100 legislated wage hike could encounter rough sailing in the Lower House.
Under this measure, all minimum wage earners in the private sector in the entire country, whether agricultural or non-agricultural, are entitled to the increase, Senator Jinggoy Ejercito Estrada, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Labor, said.
“Let us not underestimate the ripple effect of the Senate’s collective action. A higher minimum wage does not only impact the lives of those directly affected but reverberates throughout our communities, stimulating local economies, and ensuring that people would have more money in their pockets to meet their basic needs,” Estrada said.
Estrada and Zubiri are principal authors of the bill.
The legislated wage hike does not include establishments with less than 10 employees, Sancho said.
The Senate’s legislated wage hike would need a counterpart measure in the Lower House, Rep. Emilio Yulo III (Neg. Occ., 5th District) said.*