The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) filed a petition for a P418 increase in the daily minimum wage in Region 11 before the Regional Wages and Productivity Board (RTWPB)-Davao Region in Davao City on Thursday.
If approved, the current daily minimum wage of P396 will increase to P814.
Representative Raymond Mendoza, president of the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP), led the filing of the petition. He said there is a need to increase the wage as the current daily minimum wage of P396 can only accord workers and their families nutritionally deficient survival meals.
“Ang suweldo karon is not survival wage, di ba ingon ta living wage ang abton, it’s a statement by itself nga kana living wage. Every one of us enshrine the constitution kay ang kasunod ana survival wages, like explained ganiha poverty threshold wages nga pareho sa survival. Ang nahitabo karon kay below poverty wages man, dili kay poverty wages, below pa gyud,” Mendoza said in an interview.
In a statement, the group stated that the labor center said that poverty incidence in the region remains prevalent due to low wages and income of workers and their families. The group also cited the 2021 First Semester Poverty Incidence Among Families released by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), poverty incidence that was 7.9 percent in Davao del Sur; 13.6 percent in Davao del Norte; 24.5 percent in Davao Oriental; 31.7 percent in Davao Occidental; and 21.8 percent in Davao de Oro.
TUCP stated that based on 2021 government data, P13,619 per month is the poverty threshold for Davao Region compared with the current minimum wage of only P10,296 per month, with a purchasing power of only P9,242.37.
“The fact that our minimum wage earners have become the newly poor is a blatant injustice that must be seriously and urgently addressed by the government,” Mendoza said.
TUCP said that with the current minimum wage of P396 in Davao Region it can only afford a measly P14.48 a meal per member of the family which is P46.69 lower compared to P61.17 per meal per person estimated by the Ateneo Policy Center using the Food and Nutrition Research Institute (FNRI) of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) Pinggang Pinoy model, and the March 2019 PSA Media Service Market Price of Selected Commodities.
“For the food requirement, meron ding nilabas ang gobyerno, ang FNRI ng DOST kasama niya pa DOH, at World Health Organization 2019 figures pa ito na ginagamit namin kasi wala pang update. Ang kailangan mo P917.50 to get at least P61 compared mo sa P14, Yun ang benchmark namin. Ang ginawa namin kinompyut namin, and you need around P350 to come up with a decent meal, nutritious hindi P14,” said Eva Arcos, national vice president of Associated Labor Union (ALU-TUCP).
The group said that the P418 petition covers only half the gap between the government-prescribed daily nutritional needs of a family of five and the survival meal that can be afforded by a minimum-wage earner.
The group is also hopeful that their petition will be immediately granted.
Meanwhile, TUCP also sent a letter to President Rodrigo Duterte requesting his intervention on behalf of “more than five million minimum wage earners who are now fast-becoming the new poor of the country.”
“I wrote an appeal to the President for a one time-big time na wage increase considering nga ang aging gyud sa wage increase range from two years to three years in a half. Dugay kaayo niagi gud ta ug pandemic. Karon lang mi 2022 nibalik ug file tungod sa alert levels. One time-big time since patapos na ang iyahang presidency and as a legacy,” Mendoza said.