Militant solon to employers opposing wage hike: ‘Moderate your greed’

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A LAWMAKER from the militant Mabakaban bloc yesterday urged employers opposing the proposed legislated wage increase for private sector workers to “moderate their greed” and support the long overdue hike.

“Statistics have proven that even during the pandemic, the profit of big corporations grew, that’s why you should give back a little. As they say, ‘moderate your greed’,” Rep. France Castro (PL, ACT) told a press conference.

In opposing the Senate-approved P100 wage hike, Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP) president Sergio Ortiz-Luiz Jr. earlier called the P100 wage hike a “catastrophe.”

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Ortiz-Luiz even warned the wage hike would lead to layoffs and the additional labor costs would only be passed on to consumers, causing higher prices of commodities and services and weakening the income of employees.

Castro, however, said Congress should take such warning with a grain of salt and challenged those who are opposing the wage hike bills to present concrete proof that it would cause businesses to lose and close shop.

“Big businesses and corporations have to show proof that they are at the losing end of this. Will they really close down if salaries increase?” she said.

Rep. Raoul Manuel (PL, Kabataan), also of the Makabayan bloc, said employers who are saying the wage is “harmful” are “correct.”

“It’s really harmful. Harmful for greedy businesses who use small and micro enterprises to justify their opposition to the wage hike,” he said.

Last Wednesday, the House Committee on Labor Employment began hearing various bills seeking across-the-board wage increases for workers in the private sector, following the Senate’s approval of a measure setting a P100 daily minimum wage hike.

The panel chaired by Rizal Rep. Fidel Nograles has prioritized deliberations on pending measures seeking wage increases led by Deputy Speaker Raymund Mendoza’s House Bill No. 7871 and Cavite Rep. Jolo Revilla’s House Bill No. 514, both seeking a P150 across-the-board wage increase for private sector workers.

House Majority Leader Manuel Jose Dalipe earlier said the House’s options are from P150 to P350 a day wage hike or revisions to the regional wage board mechanism.

Rep. Arlene Brosas (PL, Gabriela), also a member of the Makabayan bloc, batted for the passage of her HB No. 7568, which seeks a P750 minimum wage hike “to attain a living wage.”

House labor panel chair Rizal Rep. Fidel Nograles said the committee has to thoroughly study if the calls for the government to subsidize the wage increase are doable.

“Can the government afford wage subsidies?” he said after various sectors threw their support behind the provision of wage subsidies so that companies could fund a minimum wage increase.

The Confederation of Wearables Exporters of the Philippines (CONWEP) earlier opposed the wage hike and urged the government to subsidize workers as it did at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, warning that only 20 to 30 percent of its current 160,000 direct workers may be retained if the P100 daily wage hike becomes a law.

The Sentro ng mga Nagkakaisa at Progresibong Manggagawa (Sentro) has backed the call, saying micro and small business establishments and struggling businesses would need to be subsidized by the government to meet the wage hike.

“A number of sectors have raised the possibility of government subsidizing the proposed wage increase during the hearing. I think this is a sound idea, but we also have to ask our economic managers whether the government can also cover the cost of such subsidies,” Nograles said.

Nograles vowed to direct his committee to ask for the government’s position on the proposal.

“Besides the wage subsidy, we will also continue to find measures that could help us come up with a win-win situation for all involved,” he said.

The Philippine labor sector yesterday called on the House of Representatives to swiftly pass into law the proposed legislated wage hike, saying workers are in dire need of it due to their “much-eroded” purchasing power. — With Gerard Naval 

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