Labor group urges Duterte to give P500 food subsidy for minimum wage earners

Labor group  Associated Labor Unions-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (ALU-TUCP) called on President Rodrigo Duterte to provide P500 monthly food voucher subsidy to minimum wage earners.

In a news release, ALU-TUCP noted that "minimum wage orders approved by businesses and employers nationwide remain inadequate to cope with extraordinary increases in the prices of goods and services."

"It is apparent that the recent wage orders will fall far short of meeting the 10-months-and-running price spike in basic goods suffered by worker families. Our subsidy proposal has widespread support including from the leadership of the Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP) and Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III himself," said ALU-TUCP spokesperson Alan Tanjusay. 

“On the average, wage boards acted only on the capacity of employers and businesses to afford the wage increases by adjusting the nominal minimum wage rates by P32 to P36 a day nationwide. This is too small for workers who help business and economy grow,” Tanjusay added.

It was on April 2017 when the labor group submitted the proposal to Duterte. According to Tanjusay, the proposal was endorsed by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to Duterte last June at P200 a month and not P500.

Tanjusay also pointed out that the nationwide average daily minimum wage of P232 is not enough for "poorly-paid entry-level, rank-and-file, and contractualized minimum waged workers," noting that they need at least P800 to P850 a day in order to cope with the rising inflation rate.

"Employers and businesses were ungenerous by dictating paltry wage adjustments. Government should now step in and also provide help. Government should do its part of the equation by helping and providing a life-saver through non-cash food voucher subsidy to help and save minimum waged workers drift from poverty to poverty,” Tanjusay said.

In a separate press release, Rene Magtubo, national chairperson of the Partido Manggagawa expressed support to the proposed P500 subsidy, but he also called for the reform of the wage mechanism in the country.

"The P500 subsidy is good as a short-term relief but for a long-term alternative, we need to reform the wage fixing mechanism and replace wage regionalization with a national minimum wage indexed to inflation and productivity,” Magtubo said.

He also called for the abolition of the regional wage boards.

"As we call on organized labor to unite for the P500 subsidy, we further appeal for unity around the demand to abolish the regional wage boards," Magtubo said.

"Wage differentials vary greatly. The NCR rate of P537 is almost double the ARMM rate of P280. Yet the cost of living is not significantly different across regions, cities and municipalities. What kind of system is this," he added. —Anna Felicia Bajo/KG, GMA News