BACOLOD City – The General Alliance of Workers Association(GAWA) in Negros Occidental has submitted its manifesto to the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board (RTWPB)in Western Visayas during a public hearing on minimum wage in the region yesterday, October 21, at the Social Hall of the provincial capitol.
Wennie Sancho, secretary general of GAWA, saidthe manifesto demanded for an adequate wage increase in the region, the social right to demand for just compensation, for the value of labor power that the workers put in, and to fuel the industry and economy in general.
“Unfortunately, however, minimum wages in Region 6 have remained inadequate to support decent living after almost three decades and a half of wage rationalization. This is an indication on the failure of the government to provide economic relief for the workers to secure an adequate and just compensation amidst the erosion of their purchasing power,”he added.
“Labor is the leading creator of wealth in any society. Transport, agriculture and nearly all industries and economic activities would grind to a halt without the creative hands of labor. Workers are the most productive and yet they are the least rewarded in our society. The Philippine Constitution acknowledges them to be ‘the primary social economic force’ and yet they remain underpaid, under protected, underfed and underemployed,” read part of the manifesto.
In terms of computation as to how much is the amount of wage increase per day, the reference is the purchasing power of the peso (PPP). The real value of the peso in buying goods and services continue to deteriorate, it added.
Sancho said increasing wages is the most effective way of improving the lives of the workers and their families and the fairest means to equitably distribute the country’s fruits of production.
“We believe that any substantial increase in the purchasing power of the workers redound togreater economic participation as, normally, workers’ incomes, when increased are but spent on domestic purchases, pump priming the economy,” he said, adding that beyond being a measure that will give immediate economic relief for the workers, a petition for a substantial wage increase is an issue of social justice.
Sancho,a former member of the wage board, also said, “No less than the Philippine Constitution in Article XIII, Section 3, mandates that ‘The State shall afford full protection to labor.’”/PN
