The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) is filing today a petition seeking to increase the minimum wage in Central Visayas, part of its efforts to raise salaries in most regions of the country.
According to TUCP Vice President Luis Corral, the TUCP will file a motion to increase the minimum wage in Region 7, which includes Cebu City, by P200 from its current level of P400, but the final petition will still be finalized.
“This wage petition is not just because (of the oil crisis worsened by the) Ukraine-Russia (conflict). This is just to come with the hikes in petroleum prices that will be artificially dropped next week,” Corral said in a GMA “24 Oras Weekend” report.
Moving forward, the TUCP said it will file petitions for increases in the minimum wages across nearly all regions in the Philippines.
The TUCP last week appealed for a P470 increase in the daily minimum wage in the National Capital Region (NCR) to bring it up to P1,007, citing hunger, malnutrition, and the steep increase in the prices of fuel and other basic goods.
Domestic oil prices have risen in 11 straight weeks so far, with gasoline up by P7.10 per liter and diesel by P13.15 per liter on Tuesday alone.
The Department of Energy (DOE) has maintained that the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine has hit global prices, which in turn impacted domestic prices.
A number of domestic firms have also implemented a temporary rollback or a staggered increase, giving a slight reprieve from the successive hikes.