GENERAL Alliance of Workers Association (GAWA) secretary-general Wennie Sancho has expressed support for the P750 wage increase bill, across-the-board, filed by Gabriela Women’s Party in the House of Representatives in the midst of record-breaking inflation and shrinking income.
GAWA declared that it is high time to give flesh and substance to the inert pages of 1987 Constitution particularly in Article XIII, Section 3, on Social Justice and Human Rights which states that they (all workers) shall be entitled to security of tenure, humane conditions of work and a living wage, he said.
“The P750 wage increase bill is concrete means to narrow the gap between the family living wage, presently calculated to be over P1,000 per day and the present minimum wage amounting from P350 to P570 per day,” he said.
He added that there should be a shift from a daily minimum wage to a national living wage to realize the economic emancipation of the workers from the bondage of poverty.
“At a time when the purchasing power of the workers is deteriorating and their real wage is depreciating, a significant wage increase is a necessity,” Sancho stressed.
He said it is time to bring wage rates to living standards.
“Unfortunately, the purchasing power of the workers keep on going down while the prices of goods and services keep on going up. The meager income of the workers are not sufficient to meet the basic needs of their families,” he said.
He said, “our support for a national living wage is founded on the principle that labor is the leading creator of wealth in any society. Transport, agriculture and nearly all industries would grind to a halt without the creative hands of labor. Workers are the most productive and yet they are the least rewarded in our society. The constitution acknowledged them to be the primary social economic force and yet they remain underpaid, under protected, underfed and underemployed,” he added.
Sancho disclosed that the latest survey of the International Labor Organization showed that there are 44 million works all over the world who are earning less and could not get out of poverty due to low wages.* (PR)