The Employers Confederation of the Philippines (Ecop) is thumbing down the labor sector’s proposal for a P184 wage hike for Metro Manila, saying this will dissuade potential investors.
Ecop President Donald Dee said the Associated Labor Unions-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines’s (ALU-TUCP) petition for an across-the-board wage hike will only cripple the country in terms of competitiveness.
“The labor sector is not competitive, but we have no choice. We can’t keep passing off the inefficiencies of the economy to labor; what we have to do is bring down the cost of living,” Dee said in a phone interview.
The Ecop president said hiking the wages in the National Capital Region (NCR) will stand in the way of job creation, as companies will likely look at other countries with more competitive wages.
Sought for comment on how the Duterte administration, which showed a propensity to be pro-labor, will take this petition, Dee said: “I’m confident that this administration will make sure the country is competitive. They will not just immediately approve this, or give in. They showed they can take a firm stand on the contractualization issue”.
ALU-TUCP Spokesman Alan A. Tanjusay told the BusinessMirror earlier that the petition for the salary hike—scheduled to be filed on Wednesday before the regional wage board—is meant to restore the purchasing power of the daily pay being received by NCR-based workers.
“The P491 minimum wage is not enough already, as it lost purchasing power due to rising prices of basic commodities. Along the way, since the last wage hike, an estimated P367 was depleted because goods and services increased prices, too,” Tanjusay added.