The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines, the largest labor union, said Sunday it will be seeking a 710-peso-a-day across-the-board wage increase for the workers in the National Capital Region to lift more Filipinos out of poverty.
The group, led by its president Raymond Mendoza and other union officers, are expected to file this latest wage-hike petition before Metro Manila’s Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board at 9 a.m. today, April 29.
If the union’s petition is approved, it will bring the minimum wage in Metro Manila to P1,247 per day, and that will benefit employees across-the-board, TUCP spokesman Alan Tanjusay explained.
“We are not hitting President Duterte or the government with this [wage hike petition], we are just telling the decision makers there is an urgent need to raise wages so that people can live decently,” Tanjusay said.
“It seems that some government economists have set the poverty threshold very much lower than what it should be.”
Tanjusay says the government considers a family consisting of five members who have a total monthly income of P10,481 as “out of poverty.”
But he says his group will call on the wages board to factor in the recent developments such as the inflationary spikes in the prices of food and other basic goods in setting “realistic wages.”
The minimum wage for the employees in Metro Manila is currently at P537 per day.
The TUCP is also set to file separate wage hike petitions in other regions. Petitions may be filed with the wage boards in Cebu and Davao within the week, Tanjusay said.
“We are still computing what the right amount should be in the other regions,” he said.
The labor group has traditionally filed its wage hike petitions in time for the celebration of Labor Day.
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