Two party-list lawmakers on Thursday threw their support behind a proposal to increase the national minimum wage to P750 a day for employees in the private sector and P16,000 a month for state workers.
ACT Teachers Reps. Antonio Tinio and France Castro, citing a recent survey, said pay increases are among the top concerns of the Filipinos, including other economic issues, such as controlling inflation and creating more jobs.
“The Duterte administration should, therefore, heed this resounding clamor of the people by enacting laws that will increase salaries and wages of the working people,” Tinio said.
“We find it alarming that the current administration’s legislative agenda, as announced in its Philippine Development Plan 2017-2022, does not include salary increases for public and private-sector workers, and instead only plans to pass a productivity incentives bill for the private sector,” Castro said.
There are five pending bills filed at the lower chamber establishing a productivity improvement program, repealing for the purpose Republic Act (RA) 6971, or the Productivity Incentives Act of 1990, which encourage higher levels of productivity and promote the principle of shared responsibility in employer-employee relationship.
Diwa Rep. Emmeline Aglipay-Villar, one of the authors, said the Constitution provides that the State shall regulate the relations between workers and employers, recognizing the right of labor to just share in the fruits of production and the right of enterprises to reasonable return on investment and to expansion growth.
“Adoption of productivity programs will result not only in increased incomes for both the workers and the establishment. It will, likewise, make the Filipino work force more competitive in international trade, thereby contributing to poverty reduction through job generation,” she said.
Another author of the bill, Lakas Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo of Pampanga, said currently labor and management relations are characterized as confrontational when discussing and settling basic and significant issues affecting wages, benefits and conditions of work, “as a result, the productivity expected both from labor and management suffers thereby lessening their ability to compete and survive as one entity.”
“[My House Bill 1238] granting productivity incentives to laborers in the private sector, is a recognition of their indispensable contribution to the success of the business enterprise. It, likewise, seeks to promote and provide measures for the mutual benefit and industrial harmony between labor and management,” she said.
Through the measure, Arroyo said the workers’ right to uplift and improve their lives, as well as the management’s right to a reasonable return on their investment are satisfied through their cooperative endeavors.
“The granting of productivity incentive bonus for labor will not only serve as additional income but will work as an incentive for grater productivity. This increased productivity will definitely benefit the business enterprise,” she said.
Scrap
Moreover, Tinio and Castro also urged the Duterte administration to scrap the two-tiered wage system in the private sector and Performance-Based Incentive System (PBIS), Strategic Performance Management System and similar schemes in the public sector, which both serve to suppress wage levels and impose additional burdens on workers and employees.
They added the government should instead raise the national minimum wage and implement a new round of salary increases in the public sector to enable Filipino workers and their families to lead decent lives.
“Public-school teachers are among the professionals and government employees who have been suffering under divisive schemes that provide additional compensation based on work performance, such as the Performance Based Bonus, Results-based Performance Management System and PBIS,” Castro said.
“What we need in the education sector is P25,000 minimum pay for the entry-level teaching position in public schools, P16,000 for non-teaching staff and set the minimum P27,000 for faculty in state universities and colleges,” Castro said.
Currently, there are 37 pending bills increasing and standardizing the salary of government workers.