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Arroyo ordered the Regional Wage Boards to immediately convene and discuss proposals for wage hikes. As expected, workers' groups of different political persuasions made their specific suggestions for wage hikes ranging from 50 to 150 pesos (approx. US$1-$3.50), while some lawmakers in Congress wanted a legislated 36-peso (US$0.85) wage hike.
The militant labor center Kilusang Mayo Uno revived its proposal for a legislated 125-peso across-the-board pay increase, asserting that a legislated increase in the daily take-home pay is politically, morally and legally correct. The labor group debunked claims that the government's regional wage boards have the political will to push pay hikes, based on the previous experience of workers where wage boards were used by capitalists to further depress wages.
As labor groups began lobbying for pay hikes, Arroyo made a turnaround this week. She dropped her call for a wage increase and instead pushed for non-wage benefits like rice supplies and transport incentives.
At the launching of a government emergency food program last Monday, Arroyo said business firms should be encouraged to give non-wage benefits like rice, canned goods, shuttle services and other benefits. She did not touch on the issue of wages for fear of offending big business groups that are supportive of her administration.
"President Arroyo's announcement for a wage increase is only lip service. She is not sincere, and she is only taking the Filipino workers on another roller coaster ride. Like the capitalists, she is indeed one of the biggest enemies of labor," said militant lawmaker and Anakpawis party list Rep. Crispin Beltran during a workers' forum held inside the House of Representatives.
Beltran, a former worker who was a taxi driver in his teens, is the principal author of House Bill 1172 which would grant a 125-peso across-the-board wage increase to 33.7 million Filipino workers all over the country, including part-time and casual workers.
Last week, Ciriaco Lagunzad, executive director of the National Wage and Productivity Commission, revealed that only 5 million of the nearly 34 million labor force in the country would benefit from Arroyo's order for regional tripartite wage boards to grant pay hikes to minimum wage earners.
The NWPC official said the wage increase would not be across the board, saying only minimum wage earners would get pay hikes determined by the regional wage boards. The official said those earning above the minimum wage of 350 pesos per day would not be covered by the wage increase.
Organized labor groups reminded Arroyo and Ciriaco that based on findings of the commission, each family of six needs 852 pesos per day to survive in Metro Manila and that the current 350-peso minimum wage regularly received by nonagricultural workers is far below the required amount for a family of six to survive.
Landlords representing owners of haciendas and big sugar plantations determine the wages received by part-time and full-time agricultural workers across the country, according to a six-month research project conducted by the Unyon ng Mga Manggagawa Sa Agrikultura or UMA, the largest agricultural workers' organization in the country, from July to December last year.
For instance in Central Luzon, where there are 20,000 agricultural workers, the actual wage received by farm workers is 120 pesos (US$2.85) per day, which is below the daily wage set by the Regional Wage Board.
UMA also found that in Batangas province, where there are over 50,000 agricultural workers, the workers in large sugar plantations receive a daily take-home pay ranging from 35 to 150 pesos (US$0.83-$3.50), way below the 211pesos (US$5.00) set by the regional wage board in Southern Tagalog.
The agricultural workers' group said it is also throwing its collective support behind the proposed legislation of a125-peso across-the-board wage increase, saying if approved by Congress, the increase in the daily take-home pay should be added quickly to the actual wage receive by agricultural workers.
UMA said the national government should recognize that all agricultural workers are minimum wage earners, despite the fact that the majority of them work part time or seasonally, spread over a period of six months.
"As agricultural workers and in recognition of their contribution to the national economy, they deserve to receive a minimum wage of 350 pesos per day, as well as pay increases, social benefits and decent housing," the agricultural workers' union said.
The fisherfolk alliance Pamalakaya said fishworkers in commercial fishing vessels and aquaculture fishponds, though considered part of the country's total labor force, are also paid way below the prescribed minimum wage.
"The fishlords in commercial and aquaculture sectors are dictating the take-home pay of fishworkers. The wage boards and their so-called political authority as far as wage determination is concerned is wholesally ignored and violated by big commercial and aquaculture owners and operators," said Fernando Hicap, Pamalakaya national chair.
Pamalakaya said in aquaculture fishponds, seasonal workers employed in aquafarms measuring 125 to 200 hectares are paid 200 pesos (US$4.75) per day, while those working in fishponds measuring 12 hectares and below are paid 120 pesos (US$2.85) per day.
President Arroyo's outright rejection of the 125-peso across-the-board wage increase in the daily take-home pay of workers is a monumental blunder worthy of national condemnation, the group said.
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(Gerry Albert Corpuz is a correspondent of Bulatlat.com, an alternative Philippine online news site. He is also head of the information department of Pamalakaya, a national federation of small fisherfolk organizations in the Philippines. His website is www.gerryalbertcorpuz.motime.com, and he can be contacted at themanager98@yahoo.com. ©Copyright Gerry Albert Corpuz.)
