Workers can expect an increase in their salaries in June to cushion the impact of rising costs of goods and services, Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said Tuesday.
“The instructions of the President were very clear, to address the issue of rising prices,” Bello said in Filipino.
He said, however, that the wage hike might not be as high as the P750 sought by labor groups, because that could result in fewer jobs as employers might be unable to absorb the higher cost.
Noting the urgency of the situation, Bello said the regional wage boards have been ordered to speed up discussions on the wage adjustments.
He said representatives from the Department of Labor and Employment, Department of Finance, Department of Trade and Industry, National Economic and Development Authority, and Land Transportation and Franchising Regulatory Board will meet with labor groups on June 5 to tackle their demand for higher pay.
He said demands for a higher national minimum wage must go through Congress.
“The President said the immediate need can be met by the wage boards. In the long term, Congress can address the issue of the minimum wage,” Bello said.
The biggest labor federation on Tuesday rejected the P18 to P23 wage increase proposed by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and the Employers Confederation of the Philippines.
Alan Tanjusay, spokesman for the Associated Labor Unions-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines said that while labor groups are asking for P800 across-the-board daily minimum wage for all workers nationwide, the P1,200 a day is the right amount needed by a family to live above poverty line.
The labor group said it welcomed President Duterte’s move to order the 17 regional wage boards to hold emergency meetings amid extraordinary increases in the prices of commodities and surges in the cost of services.
“We urge the businessmen and the government to desist from pre-empting the wage board process by issuing statements as to how much the wage board can decide. We urge employers and business owners to listen to poor’s appeal for equality and do not disrespect their struggle for better lives. Let us not provoke them with these unnecessary and uncalled for statements,” Tanjusay said in a statement.
“Let us stop insulting these aspirations and avoid making jokes to the poor,” he said.
The group is urging employers and business owners to respect the proposed P800 and P750 wage hike proposals because it is the aspirations of the millions of impoverished Filipinos left behind by economic growth to live decent lives.
BSP Deputy Governor Diwa C. Guinigundo said the wage board can only grant a P18-20 increase in daily minimum wage.
Ecop’s Edgardo Lacson, on one hand, also said employers can only afford P23.
The ALU-TUCP supports House Bill 7787 which proposes a uniform P750 national minimum wage.
Tanjusay said they are throwing their support behind the bill because it needs an additional push since many lawmakers represent the vested interests of employers.