NEGROS Occidental-based labor group, General Alliance of Workers Associations (Gawa), has expressed apprehensions on the current labor and economic developments in Western Visayas.
Wennie Sancho, secretary general of Gawa, said they are apprehensive of the spike of unemployment rate in the region, which was up by 9.1 percent in January 2021 from 5.6 percent in January 2020.
Sancho, also the labor representative to the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board (RTWPB)-Western Visayas, said this translates to about 312,900 workers, or higher by 131,095 compared to 181,805 in January 2020.
“Underemployment in January 2021 is 21.1 percent,” he claimed, adding that this translates to 659,4 93 higher compared to January 2020 with 12.9 percent or 402,284 unemployed persons according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
The labor leader recalled that the inflation rate was 3.8 as of January 2021, higher than 3.01 average inflation last year.
While the consumer price index, he said, was at 129.10 in January 2021 and still higher than the average inflation of 3.01 in 2020.
Sancho lamented that the purchasing of the peso continued to slide down from P79.67 in 2020 to P0.77 in January 2021 reducing the real wage of the workers.
“With all these economic indicators, the economic prospects are not good,” he said, adding that more business establishments are reducing their manpower and the number of hours to be worked just to keep their business afloat.
The Gawa official believed that it was compounded by the government's pronouncement that there will be no amelioration funds for the workers.
The world of the workers is getting smaller as they were trapped in the quagmire of hunger and poverty, he pointed out.
In the virtual meeting of the RTWPB-Western Visayas yesterday, the labor representative manifested before the other members his sentiment over the delay on the resolution of labor's manifestation for a P25 per day Pandemic Emergency Relief Allowance (Pera) submitted on October 16, 2020.
Sancho urged the Board to take action on the issue, whether to grant or not the Pera, otherwise the workers would think that the Wage Board is "inutile."
In a related development, the Board will start tackling the labor sector’s call for a relief allowance starting April 8, he added.