MANILA – The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP), touted as the country’s largest labor union, announced on Sunday that it will be seeking for a P710 per day across-the-board wage increase for workers in the National Capital Region (NCR) in order to lift more Filipinos out of poverty.
The labor group, led by its president Raymond Mendoza and other union officers formally filed this latest wage hike petition before the NCR Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board (NCR-RTWPB), which is headquartered at the DY International Building in Malate, on Monday.
If the union’s petition is approved, this will bring the minimum wage in Metro Manila to P1,247 per day, even as the wage hike petition is intended to benefit employees across-the-board, TUCP spokesman Alan Tanjusay explained.
“We are not hitting President Duterte or the government with this (wage hike petition), we are just telling the decision makers there is an urgent need to raise wages so that people can live decently. It seems that some government economists have set the poverty threshold very much lower than what it should be,” he said.
Tanjusay said that government considers a family consisting or five members who have a total household monthly income of P10,481 as “out of poverty.” However, he added that the NCR-RTWPB will be called upon to factor-in recent developments such as inflationary spikes in food and other basic goods, in setting “realistic wages.”
Today, the minimum wage for employees in Metro Manila is set at P537 per day.
Meantime, the TUCP is also set to file separate wage hike petitions in other regions. Petitions may be filed with wage boards in Cebu and Davao within the week, Tanjusay revealed. “We are still computing what the right amount should be in the other regions,” he said.
The labor group has traditionally filed its wage hike petitions in time for the celebration of Labor Day on Wednesday (May 1). (PNA)
