BACOLOD City – The proposed P750 nationwide wage increase is supported by the Negros labor group General Alliance of Workers Association (GAWA).
House Bill 7568, filed by the Gabriela Partylist in the House of Representatives on March 13, seeks a P750 across-the-board pay hike amid record-breaking inflation and shrinking incomes, according to GAWA secretary-general Wennie Sancho.
The group said it is high time to give “flesh and substance” to the inert pages of the 1987 Constitution’s Art. X111, Section 3, on Social Justice and Human Rights, as cited, “They (all workers) shall be entitled to security of tenure, humane conditions of work and a living wage.”
The P750 wage increase bill aims to narrow the gap between the family living wage, which is presently calculated to be over P1,100 per day, and the present minimum wage of P350 to P570 per day, Sancho explained.
“At a time when the purchasing power of the workers is deteriorating and their real wage is depreciating, a significant wage increase is a necessity,” said Sancho./PN
