Senator Risa Hontiveros said that Malacanang should work more closely with lawmakers for new laws and policies towards hiking workers’ wages and accelerating job creation across the country, to help Filipinos cope with runaway inflation.
While the Senator welcomes the wage review order of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), she emphasized that new laws on raising workers’ pay and speeding up the creation of gainful livelihood should be part of the new Common Legislative Agenda (CLA), or those measures identified by both Malacanang and members of Congress as priority legislation via the Legislative – Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC).
“Everyone is affected by inflation, but its worst effects are felt the most by low wage earners, as well as freelance workers, or those who have lost their jobs or livelihood. Dapat nang itaas ang sweldo ng manggagawa at mas maging aktibo tayo sa job creation sa buong bansa. Swift government response on those issues is needed, through new laws or executive issuances,” Hontiveros said.
Hontiveros explained that including wage hikes and job creation as part of the priority legislative agenda of the LEDAC ensures that these policy issues will receive immediate government attention and action. She pointed out that the existing list of around 30 priority bills, as identified in a LEDAC meeting last October, does not include any new proposed laws that will directly raise workers’ pay or foster job creation.
“Let us not ignore the everyday struggles of our kababayans. Mas mabunga sana kung una sa agenda ng LEDAC ang paglikha ng trabaho, dagdag-sweldo, at ayuda sa mahihirap para may pambayad sila sa mas mahal na bilihin at utility services,” Hontiveros said.
She said that executive officials and lawmakers should look particularly into the calls for wage increase and employment guarantees by labor groups across the country. This includes, she said, the 100 pesos across-the-board wage hike proposed by Partido Manggagawa as “wage recovery” to address the diminished value of minimum wages in the National Capital Region (NCR) and other regions.
In addition, Hontiveros said that government should also study the implications of proposed wage hikes on the situation of millions of workers in the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) sector, who are excluded by existing laws from the coverage of minimum wage regulations.
“Tamang kombinasyon ng tamang patakaran ang kailangan natin ngayon. Trabaho, sapat na sweldo, at kabuhayan ang dapat prayoridad ngayon dahil kapag meron nito ang mayorya ng ating mga kababayan, makakaya nilang salagin ang mga epekto ng masamang lagay ng ekonomiya,” Hontiveros said.
Anticipating objections from business and from the economic managers, Hontiveros said that wage recovery, “must also be about the beginning of a national conversation regarding bargaining power in employee and employer relations on how labor can get a fair share of the rise in labor productivity beginning when economic growth became high and sustained fifteen years ago, while real wages stagnated all throughout that period.”
The senator added that while the unemployment rate dropped to 5.0% in September, the latest labor force survey showed a higher underemployment rate of 15.4%. “Mas dumarami ang naghahanap ng raket at dagdag hanapbuhay dahil hindi na sapat ang kita sa iisang trabaho lamang. Kaya kailangan double time ang gobyerno na solusyunan ang problemang ito,” she concluded.