The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP)-Nagkaisa will demand for a new minimum living wage when the government wage board holds its first public hearing on Friday at Philippine Trade Training Center in Pasay City.
TUCP spokesperson, Alan Tanjusay, said they are going to petition P136 on top of the current P466 minimum wage.
“Our economy has been improving and continues to perform better than its peers in the region but the Filipino workers, who largely contributed to that growth, are falling through the cracks and being left behind. Many minimum wage earners are falling by the day and they are being ignored by government,” Tanjusay said.
Tanjusay said workers in Metro Manila, numbering around 800,000, currently receives a nominal wage of P466 a day “but due to inflation and mandatory salary deductions, a worker only receives a real wage of P299.”
He cited an International Labour Organization (ILO) provision that said that remuneration received for a standard 40-hour work week by a worker in a particular place would be sufficient to afford a decent standard of living for the worker and his or her family.
