By Dolly Yasa
BACOLOD City – General Alliance of Workers Associations (GAWA) Secretary-General Wennie Sancho said it is reasonable for organized labor to file petitions for wage increases before the Regional Wage Boards all over the country amid the worsening economic conditions and the unabated increases in prices of basic goods and services.
In a statement to Daily Guardian on Friday, Sancho said that “the continued erosion of the workers’ purchasing power had reduced their real wages into starvation wages.”
He also said that the threat of the business sector that companies will close if wage hike will be implemented is “merely a rehash of the same old reasons they had always been saying every time there is a demand for wage hike.”
“What is unreasonable, is the pronouncement of DOLE Sec. Silvestre Bello III echoing the stand of the business sector.” Sancho said.
The labor advocate also said that “It would seem to appear that the labor chief is trying to preempt our call for wage increase like what he did on December 2020 when he hinted on the possible deferment of the 13th month pay only to backtrack later.”
According to the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), a Filipino worker is losing P23,000 annually due to pandemic, Sancho said.
“In Western Visayas the purchasing power of the peso was reduced to P0.79 as of December 2020. This means that there was a reduction in our nominal wage of P395 per day of about P82.95 per day, more or less. Our real wage in Region 6 is only P312 per day. This does not include reduction in wages and wage-related benefits due to the implementation of flexible working arrangements like compressed work week, job rotation and forced leaves under a ‘no work no pay’ policy. Deductions on social benefits from the worker’s wages would further reduce his take-home pay,” he added.
The time for another round of wage increase is now. It is not only reasonable, it is an economic necessity for the workers, Sancho said.
