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Thursday, March 28, 2024

TUCP pushes Visayas wage hike

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The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines on Tuesday filed a petition for a P386 wage increase for the private workers in the Visayas.

TUCP president Raymond Mendoza said the petition was filed before the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board in Region VII.

He cited the urgency to address the growing health problems of the workers and their families who are nutritionally deficient who surive only on instant noodles, canned sardines, tocino, longganisa, itlog na maalat, itlog at pan de sal and unlimited rice.

“Forcing workers and their families to subsist on nutritionally deficient meals for a long period will definitely have bigger repercussions on business, bigger costs to the government and the economy if continuously ignored,” Mendoza said.

He said a vast army of undernourished Filipino workers was a definite outcome, which was detrimental to the country that prided itself with skilled and perceptive workers.

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Mendoza said the TUCP was raising the issue of workers’ nourishment as this had not been given attention.

He said the increasing prices of goods and services due to the TRAIN Law and the compounding effects of the excise tax on fuel and the value-added tax were affecting millions of minimum-wage earners and their ability to afford proper nourishment.

He said the minimum-wage earners were feeling the brunt of the increase in petroleum products that had led to the rising prices of goods and services, especially since they were not benefiting from the TRAIN Law as they were already tax-exempt.

“We feel the Philippine Statistic Authority’s P10,481 poverty threshold is having the effect of institutionalizing a policy of utter disregard for the workers' poor nourishment,” Mendoza said.

The 2018 first quarter poverty and food threshold findings of the PSA says a monthly income of P10,481 is sufficient to sustain a family of five.

“This translates to only P144.04 for their meal budget, or approximately P28.80 per meal per day for a family of five or a budget of only P9.60 per family member per meal. What nutritious food can we buy with P9.60 per meal,” Mendoza said.

READ: TUCP slams wage hike rejection

READ: TUCP bats for P710 wage hike in Metro

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