Labor chief Baldoz: No wage increase on Labor Day, but...

(Updated 6:03 p.m.) Workers will have no cause for rejoicing on May 1, as the Department of Labor and Employment said there will be no wage hike on the international celebration of Labor Day. However, Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz said the department intends to give a package of non-wage benefits such as affordable housing facilities for minimum wage earners in government agencies, especially in Metro Manila because "40 percent of their income are spent on house rentals." Scholarship grants from the Social Security System and the Government Service Insurance System will also be offered. But that does not mean there will be no wage hike at all this year, Baldoz said, since according to their guidelines workers may submit petitions for a hike one year after the last wage order. "Walang wage hike sa May 1 kasi may rules na pwede lang mag-entertain ng petitions for wage increase during the anniversary date of the last wage order. In the case of National Capital Region, it's June 3," Baldoz said. The DOLE approved a P30 wage hike in NCR in May last year. The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) then petitioned for a P90 wage increase. The group this year is proposing an P85 across-the-board wage increase in NCR. TUCP also petitioned for an P80 wage increase in Davao region and P88 in Cagayan de Oro, said National Wages and Productivity Commission deputy executive director Patricia Hornilla. She added that workers' groups file wage increase petitions earlier even though they know the scheduled deadline. "Alam nila yan. Every Labor Day ginagawa nila 'yan," she said, but refused to elaborate. Labor Undersecretary Ciriaco Lagunsad added that DOLE's wage board is not mandated to approve across-the-board wage increases. "Walang mandato ang board para magbigay ng across-the-board increase dahil ang kanilang mandato ay magreview ng minimum wage," he said at the sidelines of the briefing. Lagunsad added that they would have to consider the "unintended outcomes" of a wage hike. "Tinitingnan din 'yung mga side effects kagaya nung pagka-masyado expensive sa business, baka mag-lay-off—'yung mga tinatawag na unintended outcomes," he said. Asked about the P125 across-the-board wage increase proposed by the militant left, Lagunsad said the petition was filed in Congress and not with the wage board. Authored by the leftists party-list groups, House Bill 375 or the P125 Wage Hike Bill was approved at the committee level early this year. For its part, progressive research group IBON Foundation said Baldoz's no-wage-hike announcement is "exclusionary" against the poor majority. "The exclusionary quality of the economy is further affirmed by the recent statement of Labor secretary Rosalinda Baldoz, who announced that there will be no wage increase on May 1. This announcement came amid the recent Fitch investment upgrade and record Philippine Stock Exchange Composite index," the group said in a statement, referring to the credit rating upgrade and the benchmark index record highs. "But higher wages... are among the most important mechanisms for making growth inclusive," it added, saying that as of March 2013 the P456 minimum wage in NCR only has a real value of P363, despite the P10-wage increment last November, IBON executive director Sonny Africa added in an e-mail interview that the "extremely poor jobs situation underpins the bleak poverty situation." "The poverty situation cannot be expected to fundamentally change if the economy is not going to create enough jobs for its citizen," he said. According to the National Statistics Office, the January 2013 jobless rate stood at 7.1 percent, from 7.2 percent last year.  Underemployment is also pegged at 20.9 percent, up from 18.8 percent. — BM, GMA News