A Negros labor leader slammed government for its failure to grant the P100 legislated wage hike approved by the Senate as the nation marked Labor Day on May 1.
“It was passed on to the Lower House and disappeared. It will be difficult for the legislated wage hike to be approved in the Lower House because the majority of its members are capitalists and businessmen”, Wennie Sancho, General Alliance of Workers Associations secretary-general, said.
Meanwhile, the workers are suffering from the effects of inflation with the unabated increase in the prices of goods and services, he said.
The minimum wage can no longer cope with the basic needs of families with the deterioration of the workers purchasing power and the erosion of the value of the peso, Sancho said.
Workers are praised on Labor Day and exploited for the rest of the year, he said.
President Ferdinand. Marcos Jr. on Wednesday directed the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Boards (RTWPB) to review the minimum wage rates in their respective regions.
Marcos asked the RTWPBs to consider the prevailing economic complexities such as inflation in conducting the review.*