By Ellson Quismorio
Published: April 29, 2013
LUCBAN, Quezon—More non-wage benefits, diminished cost of living, additional jobs.
These were among the wishes of a handful of Team PNoy senatorial candidates for the labor sector this coming Labor Day even as they individually tackled the rationality of an across the board wage hike for workers.
Former Akbayan party-list representative Risa Hontiveros told manila-based reporters here that pushing Congress or the executive branch for a legislated wage increase is “worth a try” but offered other measures that could alleviate the burden on Filipino workers.
“For the next three years, it’s worth a try (wage hike). If it could be worked out within the next three years, at least (give the workers) security of tenure and other non-wage benefits that will basic goods and services accessible to the working people,” said the Senate hopeful.
Hontiveros stressed that providing workers with security of tenure should be treated as not just a mere benefit but as their right.
“I know President Noy (Benigno S. Aquino III) isn’t too hot on it (security of tenure) right now but I still want to pursue it if only to protect our workers in this climate of contractualization, which is happening not only in the Philippines but in the whole world.”
Hontiveros reckoned that workers should also have more bang for their buck as far as basic goods and services are concerned.
“Let’s raise their non-wage benefits. Their buying power should be enhanced by giving them better access to prices of basic goods and services.”
Fellow Team PNoy bet, former senator Jamby Madrigal echoed Hontiveros’ sentiments, lamenting that the cost of living in the Philippines is too high compared to other Asian countries.
“For me, the Philippines has three problems, these are the high costs of electricity, food and water. If you go to Thailand, India or Indonesia, you’ll see that food prices are low, as well as power and at water. All of these drive up our cost of living,” she said.
While she noted that a wage hike is necessary to improve the people’s quality of living, Madrigal stressed that it is more important to lower the cost of living here to make sure that workers are actually able to save a chunk from their salaries.
Another former senator on the administration ticket, Ramon Magsaysay Jr., had a simpler wish for Filipinos this Labor Day—more jobs.
“I wish there’d be more jobs. Of course we need to increase wages, but it would be better to generate more jobs because of sheer number of jobless people,” said Magsaysay, who estimated that around four million out of the country’s labor force are unemployed.
“So number one, more jobs, more businesses. That’s what the President is doing. Without business, there is no employment. Capital needs to keep pouring in. And that’s exactly what he is doing.”
When asked about his stand on legislated wage hike, Magsaysay, son of former president Ramon Magsasay, preferred to let the wage boards handle the matter although he said he was in favour of increasing salaries “based on workers’ merits”. He also wanted additional non-wage benefits as well as strengthened social safety nets like Philhealth coverage.
Re-electionist Senator Koko Pimentel III for his part vowed to work together with the labor sector to come up with what he called a “decent wage”.
“My commitment to the labor sector is I will continue for decent wages for all workers. Now the question is what is that decent? I’m willing to go through number-crunching to determine what is a decent wage on a per region or city basis if necessary,” he said.
“I can’t tell what a decent wage is but we will continue to pursue that concept. We’ll meet with a representative from the labor sector and let us compute, let’s do some number-crunching so that we will have a basis once we reach a figure.”
Pimentel said that his fellow Team PNoy candidate Magsaysay’s suggestion of a merit-based wage hike could work hand-in-hand with a legislated wage increase, which he said he was open to.
“It can be both things. There should be a minimum increase plus (another) based on merit on the point of view of the employer—a merit-system of the employers. It’s like a scholarship program. There’s a scholarship for the general population and there’s a scholarship program for the best and the brightest. That’s where the merit comes in, it’s the same thing.”
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