Kinondena ng Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) ang inaprubahang dagdag na P42 sa arawang sahod sa Central Visayas (Region VII), na lubha umanong kulang, nakakainsulto, at hindi nakaayon sa socioeconomic reality na kinakaharap ng rehiyon.
Muli ring nanawagan ang TUCP sa Kongreso na ipasa ang House Bill 88, na inakda ni House Deputy Speaker at TUCP party-list Rep. Raymond Democrito Mendoza, para sa P200 dagdag sa minimum wage sa buong bansa.
“This severely lacking and grossly insulting P42 wage hike does not make any sense because Region VII just recorded the highest inflation rate last July and, in fact, the annual poverty incidence in Central Visayas is over eight times that of Metro Manila,” sabi ng TUCP.
“Without any sense of logic, urgency, or justice, the DOLE is effectively telling every worker in Central Visayas: prices are exploding, even faster than the nation, but your family must survive on a mere P42 increase. After the P42 increase in Central Visayas that is barely two-thirds of the P60 increase downgraded from P85 in Metro Manila, workers hope that both the Senate and the House of Representatives will immediately pass the P200 legislated wage hike as the only hope for a substantial wage increase,” sabi pa ng grupo.
Sa ilalim ng bagong wage order, ang minimum wage sa Class A o Expanded Metro Cebu ay magiging P582 kada araw, habang ang mga manggagawa sa ibang lugar na sakop ng Class B ay tatanggap lamang ng P542 kada araw.
“This is precisely why the regional wage boards are broken and must be fixed. Why should a worker in one municipality be worth less than a worker doing comparable work elsewhere in the same region? Why should workers be divided into artificial Classes A and B when the cost of living is crushing working families across Central Visayas?” sabi ng grupo.
“Worse, even the newest highest minimum wage of P582 in the region remains nowhere near the estimated regional family living wage of approximately P1,400 per day. And even if DOLE boasts that the P42 increase translates to roughly P1,092 more per month, that is hardly something to celebrate when the entire increase for a month still falls short of what a family needs to live on for even a single day,” dagdag pa ng TUCP.
Ayon sa TUCP, ang hindi sapat na minimum wage hike ay nagpapakita ng isang kabiguan ang regional wage board system. (Billy Begas)
