10% PAY HIKE FOR GOVT WORKERS
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, MAY 1, 2008 (STAR) There will be no wage increase announcement for the private sector today, but President Arroyo is expected to sign an executive order that would grant a 10 percent pay increase to government workers.Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said the draft EO, prepared by Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya, was on the President’s desk and was expected to be signed last night upon her arrival from a three-day trip out of town before Labor Day.
Mrs. Arroyo told reporters on Monday night in Cebu City that she would likely announce a “package” for workers today. In the past several days, she had been visiting factories in Metro Manila and other provinces where workers are receiving good benefits from their employers.
Andaya earlier said the EO was meant to “flesh out” the appropriations authority given by Congress to increase by 10 percent the basic pay of national government employees effective July 1 this year.
He said the draft of the EO was similar to the one issued by the President in March last year which granted a 10 percent increase in the basic salary of civilian employees in the national government, and a P1,200 hike in the monthly subsistence and other allowances of policemen, soldiers and other uniformed personnel.
Andaya said a 10-percent increase in the basic pay of 898, 849 national government employees will cost P9.216 billion for six months.
The forthcoming pay hike will be the third in 30 months in the public sector, the first being the P1,000 across-the-board grant in “additional allowance which took effect January 2006.
Meanwhile, militant workers’ still vowed to gather around 5,000 people and march to Malacañang in their protest action today to seek wage increase.
The Philippine National Police (PNP), on the other hand, has placed the entire Metro Manila under alert status and will deploy at total of 3,000 members of the Civil Disturbance Management (CDM) to maintain peace and order.
Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP) president Leody de Guzman said the march started last Thursday in Calamba, Laguna then proceeded to Alabang going to the Bicutan area in Taguig yesterday. The last stop was in Barangay Pio del Pilar in Makati City.
The workers will march today from Liwasang Bonifacio to Mendiola in Manila.
About 500 marchers from the three-day Lakbayan from Laguna entered Metro Manila via Alabang and about 1,000 South National Capital Region-based workers from BMP joined the marchers yesterday.
“The non-wage benefits to be announced today by GMA are just wage extenders that cannot replace an across-the-board wage hike which is a necessary economic relief for all workers nationwide. It is not a gift but an insult to the workers,” Renato Magtubo, chairman of Partido ng Manggagawa, said.
Magtubo insisted on a substantial legislated salary increase instead of a wage order from the regional boards.
“We also call on Congress to increase the planned tax exemptions for workers to P250,000 per individual so that all those earning below the cost of living —not just minimum wage earners —be spared the burden of withholding taxes,” he said.
Heightened alert
Not one to be caught off guard, PNP chief Director General Avelino Razon Jr. said the police have placed the rest of the country under heightened alert effective 8 a.m. today.
“The operational readiness condition will ensure that 50 percent of police units, personnel and resources will be available for peace and order, and public safety operations to ensure the orderly and uneventful celebration of the Labor Day holiday,” said Razon.
The PNP chief also instructed all regional directors and directors of National Support Units to conduct inspection on units, personnel and equipment, particularly those that will be deployed to provide security in projected mass actions.
PNP spokesman Chief Superintendent Nicanor Bartolome said police commanders may upgrade the alert status to full depending on the situation in their areas of responsibility.
“As workers in government, we too are entitled to commemorate the significance of Labor Day,” Bartolome said. “However, as law enforcers, duty calls that we must report for work on that day to preclude any threat of violence and disorder on this otherwise peaceful and meaningful celebration of international Labor Day.”
Metro Manila Police chief Director Geary Barias, for his part, has ordered the upgrading of alert status of the PNP-NCRPO in preparation for the overall security and public safety coverage.
“Starting 12 noon (April 30), the entire Metro Manila PNP will be on full alert status, which means that all leaves are suspended and that all commanders must see to it that their personnel are all accounted for and ready for deployment anytime,” he said.
Dubious integrity
Meanwhile, another organized labor group led by the Federation of Free Workers (FFW) reported a dramatic surge in the number of labor disputes pending before the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC).
“Waiting for several years to get cases resolved has been causing anxiety to workers. In fact, hopelessness abound among workers,” said Allan Montaño, FFW president.
Montano cited data indicating that as of June 30, 2007, NLRC has a backlog of 7,736 cases. The figure was significantly higher than the recorded 2,730 unresolved cases in 2006 and 1,336 in 2005.
“From January to September 2007, the NLRC received 15,119 cases and was able to resolve only 7,516 of them for a resolution rate of barely 50 per cent,” Montano said.
“This resulted to the added layer of a review body compounding the unreasonable delay in the disposition of labor cases,” he said.
FFW further expressed doubt on the integrity of the NLRC in upholding monetary awards by labor arbiters.
From January to June 2007, labor arbiters have awarded some P4,834,380.00 to 16,403 workers involving different cases. Upon appeal to the NLRC, it has upheld awards amounting to only P707,810.00 covering a measly 4,922 workers.
To resolve the problem, Montano asked the national government to enact a law that reverts to the old practice of filing petitions for review of NLRC decisions to the Supreme Court, thereby removing the added layer, where petitions are lodged in the Court of Appeals.
He also called for the creation of a regional court of labor relations to replace the NLRC.
Non-wage benefits
The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) yesterday reported that President Arroyo is set to announce today a non-wage package for workers nationwide.
A labor official, who requested anonymity, said the President is likely to declare a moratorium on the payment of penalties or surcharges resulting from the delay in the payment of housing and salary loans.
She is also expected to endorse the immediate passage of a proposed measure exempting minimum wage earners and other low-income workers from paying taxes.
Acting Labor Secretary Marianito Roque earlier reported that wage increase is definitely out of the package of benefits the government is planning to give the workers on Labor Day.
But Roque noted that the different Regional Tripartite and Productivity Boards (RTWPBs) nationwide are already deliberating on the wage issue and are expected to come out with a decision end of May.
Trade Union Congress of the Philippines, the country’s largest labor group and other affiliate unions are seeking increases in the take-home pay of workers ranging from P80 to P150.
TUCP, FFW, groups of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and informal sector workers are also demanding a tax break and other benefits for workers.
Almost, but not quite
The House of Representatives, on the other hand, tried but failed to pass a bill doubling the tax exemptions not only of minimum wage earners but all other workers as well.
The bigger exemptions, which would spare those receiving minimum pay from income tax, are contained in Bill 3971, on which congressmen opened floor debates last night.
However, after two congressmen questioned the bill’s sponsor, Antique Rep. Exequiel Javier, ways and means committee chairman, the House inexplicably decided to postpone approval of the measure for next week.
There were only fewer than 50 members in the session hall when debates were abruptly ended.
House officials led by Speaker Prospero Nograles have earlier assured workers that their chamber would approve the proposed bigger exemptions before Labor Day.
The exemptions are intended to augment whatever amount of salary increase that regional wage boards would give minimum wage earners.
Sponsoring Bill 3971, Javier told his colleagues that these would be a “timely relief to workers in the wake of the spikes in consumer prices.”
“The last time I rose here to extend our help to our working masses was 10 years ago, amid the debilitating
Asian financial crisis,” he said.
But whatever relief taxpayers received then has been eaten up by inflation and the rising cost of living, he said.
Nation’s backbone
With all the Labor Day preparations, Caloocan Bishop Deogracias Iniguez, concurrent CBCP-Committee on Public Affairs, took the stand and addressed the labor sector through a short text message, saying the rights of workers should be acknowledged and their dignity upheld.
“The laborers are the backbone of the nation, may their rights be duly recognized and accorded for the good of the nation.”
Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz, for his part, reminded employees that there is dignity in work.
“The truth is that human beings dignify labor just as labor dignifies human beings—and human life is thus nurtured and enhanced.”
In most cases, factory workers are viewed merely as “instruments of production. They are looked upon as really nothing more than chattels for sale and dispatch to the highest bidders — as in the concrete case of simple laborers sent abroad,” said Cruz. — Cecille Suerte Felipe, Christina Mendez, Mayen Jaymalin, Evelyn Macairan, Jess Diaz, Nikki Angulo, Ana Mae Roa,
Reported by: Sol Jose Vanzi
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