A LABOR leader in Negros Occidental is calling on the government to protect the real wages from falling through one, provision of necessary wage increase to the workers.
Wennie Sancho, secretary general of General Alliance of Workers Associations (Gawa), said wage is the price of labor in the production of goods and services.
Sancho, also the labor representative to the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board (RTWPB) in Western Visayas, said it is the remuneration for all forms of human endeavors.
A worker perceives wages as a source of income for the economic sustenance of his family, he said.
“Despite the pandemic, unemployment and economic recession, workers have the right to a living wage,” the labor leader said, adding that “there is no denying the fact that the prices of basic goods and services are now steadily increasing.”
The Gawa official lamented that the purchasing power of the worker's peso is very much reduced and the real wage is falling.
In Western Visayas, Sancho said, the purchasing power of the peso is P0.79 which means that the daily minimum wage of P395 has a real value of P314.
The erosion of the worker's purchasing power is about P81 per day. The worker has lost about P2,106 per month if multiplied by 26 working days, he said.
Sancho stressed that with the eroding value of real wage and a continuous rise in the prices of basic goods and services amid the pandemic, it is just but legitimate for labor to demand for a wage increase commensurate to the needs of the workers and their families.
“When wages are not enough to buy the bare necessities, even of frugal living, the worker's situation has indeed reached a point of being dehumanizing,” he added.
As they support the demand for wage hike nationwide, Sancho and his fellow labor representative Hernane Braza will push for P80 to P100 per day increase for workers in Western Visayas during the regular meeting of the Wage Board on February 16.
At present, minimum wage workers in the region earn from P310 to P395 per day depending on their classification.
Under Wage Order No. 25, which took effect in November 2019, a P30 daily pay hike was provided for workers among non-agriculture, industrial and commercial establishments employing more than 10 employees.
From the previous P350 plus cost of living allowance (Cola) of P15, totaling P365 per day, the prevailing rate is P395.
Employees from establishments with less than 10 workers are receiving additional P15, making the wage rate P310 per day.
For the agricultural sector, plantation workers received a P20 increase. From the previous P295 per day, the existing minimum wage rate under this sector is P315.
Sancho earlier told SunStar Bacolod that since the existing Wage Order has already lapsed, the Wage Board can therefore can act motu proprio on the evaluation whether there's a need for a wage increase or none.
There’s no need for a wage hike petition, he said, adding that there’s a supervening condition with prices of basic goods and services going up significantly.
Sancho said the goal of Gawa in its advocacy, is to raise the living standard of workers to a more humane and decent level.
“Labor support the call for wage hike and at the same time militantly protect the real wage from falling,” he said, stressing that “if the real wage continues to deteriorate, the end result would be a deterioration of the workers’ economic condition of also.”