BACOLOD City – A militant labor group hit the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board (RTWPB) for granting a measly P13.50 hike in the daily minimum wage of agricultural workers in Western Visayas.
The National Federation of Sugarcane Workers (NFSW) expressed its disappointment over Wage Order No. 24 after the RTWPB approved it on Monday.
The group said it is an “Independence Day insult.”
The new wage adjustment prescribes the P13.50 increase in the salaries of plantation and non-plantation workers.
Before, the plantation and non-plantation workers receive P281.50 and P271.50 daily minimum wage, respectively, under Wage Order No. 23.
NFSW regional chairman Danilo “Roki” Rillo said the RTWPB is “detached from reality” and “does not know the actual conditions of workers in the field,” particularly those in haciendas, or sugar plantations.
Rillo added that sugar workers are the most exploited sector in the region, especially in Negros Occidental with the province being dependent on the sugar industry.
Sugar workers continue to suffer from such exploitation, he added, citing that employers are still using labor contracting, or the pakyaw scheme, in the haciendas.
Rillo said the only solution to the problem is to implement a P700 across-the-board wage law.
The NSFW and other progressive groups under the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan also blasted the Duterte administration for “bowing” to the United States and becoming a “puppet” of China.
With these, there is no use to celebrate the 120th Philippine Independence Day, the groups said./PN
