Advocates for higher productivity, wage hike to welcome 2024

The Federation of Free Workers (FFW) greatly welcomes the Department of Labor and Employment’s decision to join the International Labor Organization’s (ILO) “Global Coalition for Social Justice,” stressing that this move is expected to enhance efforts at promoting social protection, creating better work and employment opportunities, and boosting productivity and income across the nation.

The FFW highlights this development in the context of international wage trends. Notably, millions of workers in the United States are poised for a pay increase next year. In 2024, half of the U.S. states are planning to elevate their minimum wages, setting a new baseline of at least US$16 an hour in California, New York, and Washington. In 22 states, these increases will be effective from January 1. Nevada and Oregon will follow suit on July 1, and Florida’s hike is scheduled for September 30.

In the Philippines, the FFW is advocating for a similar progressive approach with an across-the-board increase in the daily wage amounting to PHP150 nationwide toward the family living wage constitutional precept.

This push for a wage hike is underscored by the stark contrast in minimum wages within Southeast Asia. The Philippines’ current minimum wage in the National Capital Region stands at around PHP610 per day, significantly lower than in Indonesia (PHP 842) and  Malaysia (PHP 854).

Furthermore, Filipino workers’ take-home pay is further reduced due to mandatory deductions for social security contributions, not to mention the record inflation the country  experienced at the beginning of the year that hardly slowed down.

As the Philippine government joins the Global Coalition for Social Justice, the FFW urges it to consider these global wage and local inflation trends. The organization remains optimistic that the government’s commitment will lead to substantial policy measures, narrowing the wage gap and improving the living standards of Filipino families.

RESOLVE EJKs

At the year-ender media forum at Casino Español in Manila today, the FFW said “it hopes that the commitment of the government to the Global Coalition would translate into more serious reforms and actions aimed at solving the cases of extrajudicial killings of workers and stopping all threats to the rights of workers to unionize.”

The ILO High Level Tripartite Mission (HLTM) to Manila in January among others, concluded that government has hardly raised a finger in addressing long standing cases of EJKs of workers and other infringements on the right to unionize.

Since 2016, there have been 72 documented killings of trade unionists in the country. This will provide workers with more mechanisms to exact accountability from government over the recommendations of the ILO HLTM.

UNITED FRONT

Meanwhile, the FFW noted that decent jobs are still hard to come by with the End Endo Bill languishing in the cellar of Congress, this despite reported growth and resumption of normal operations of many establishments.

The FFW membership has suffered job losses in the thousands, most notably with the closure of Continental Temic in Taguig and Dana Fresh in SOCSARGEN; and the cut in operations due to privatization and the fourth industrial revolution, such as at Duty Free Philippines, Globe Telecom and Vishay Philippines, among others. This exacerbates the fact that despite workers’ demands for almost a decade, just transition is still elusive. The PUV modernization did not consider the welfare of drivers, even as the transition to renewable energy remains at a snail’s pace.

Not to be cowed, the FFW successfully organized workers in the face of great odds and led them in negotiating for collective bargaining agreements at the J and T Express, Genosi, Ocean Poly among others.

Malacañang has remained adamant to meet workers on these pressing issues, in spite of the readiness of workers to conduct social dialogue.

If not for the persistence of the workers—acting as a united front—that peaked with the establishment of the All Philippine Trade Unions (APTU) at the heels of the ILO HLTM, the Filipino working class might not have gained anything. It is this resolve that enabled the movement to receive the “George Meany-Lane Kirkland Human Rights Award” from the AFL-CIO, and get rewarded with the ratification of ILO Convention 190 on violence in the World of Work.

The unity has also led to the crafting of Labor’s 15-point Agenda and its engendered  version, the Women Workers Agenda, led by the Women Workers United (WWU).