MANILA -- Jeers instead of cheers on President Benigno Aquino III marked the celebration of Labor Day on Wednesday, a day after the Chief Executive rejected some of the worker groups' demands in a dialogue in Malacañang.
Aquino refused to rush the passage of a bill guaranteeing tenure to millions of workers and increase the tax exemption on benefits from signing bonus and productivity wage increase, saying the proposals will only do more harm than good to the economy.
In response, thousands of people from labor coalition Nagkaisa, youth partylist Kabataan, and Kilusang Mayo Uno went to Mendiola in Manila—site of a bloody picket of farmers pushing for agrarian reform in 1987—to protest Aquino’s supposed disregard on the condition of the labor sector.
"We want the mandates of the Constitution—living wages and full employment—to be implemented by the State," said Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) chairman Renato Magtubo, whose group estimated that the cost of living for a family of six in Metro Manila has already reached P1,217.
Only Zamboanga Peninsula has increased minimum wage from P267 to P280 in time for Labor Day while businessmen in Cagayan de Oro are only amenable to a P12-salary hike. Wage hike petitions in other regions are still pending resolution.
"What other supervening factor is needed to prove that minimum wages in the country can no longer keep up with the prices of basic commodities? Wages in the country have remained stagnant for decades with no substantive increase in recent history," said Kabataan partylist president Terry Ridon.
PM also criticized the non-wage benefits as "scraps meant for slaves" and insisted that workers are "not children that can be pacified with candy." The group slammed the job fairs organized by the Department of Labor and Employment (Dole) as a "farce."
Outside Manila, PM said its members united with the Nagkaisa contingent for a 7,000-strong rally from downtown Colon to Fuente Osmeña. Protests were also held in Iloilo, Iligan City and Davao City, according to PM.
Journalists also took the occasion to air concerns on their working conditions.
In a statement, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) said only a few news organizations have labor unions and not all have collective bargaining agreements with employers.
To save on cost, news outlets including the "most profitable ones" continue to buck compulsory regularization through correspondent and talent systems while giving low rates based on what gets printed or broadcasted and not on the actual work, the NUJP said.
"The working and living conditions are worst in the provinces where media workers are required to solicit ads to earn commissions in lieu of wages and often forced to accept additional sidelines to augment their take home pay," the group added.
The NUJP asked media owners to ensure security of tenure, decent wages and working conditions, and respect for rights in the workplace. (Virgil Lopez/Sunnex)