KMU challenges Arroyo government to reveal complete list of companies it allowed to pay half of minimum wage of workers

THE militant Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) today urged the Macapagal-Arroyo
government to divulge the complete list of electronics companies it
allowed to pay workers “half of the existing minimum wage” for the
next six months due to global financial crisis.

Certain electronics firms have obtained government permission to pay
their remaining workers a "subsidy" equivalent to half the minimum
wage, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said, as companies attempt to
ride out the financial meltdown.

"Many of them requested (permission to pay half the minimum wage)
because they know electronics will come back," President Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo was quoted as saying.

"They don’t want to lose their workers, they’d like to keep them in
their payroll if they can even if they’re not really working," she
added.

KMU Spokesperson Prestoline Suyat said that “ In all fairness, we the
workers  and the public have the right to know which  of the so called
“many electronics companies” had been allowed by the Arroyo government
to pay its workers only half of  the existing minimum  wages for the
next six months. Are these companies really suffering from the crisis
or just exploiting the so called economic meltdown to register more
profits?”

Suyat also added that during economic crisis, the government and
capitalists must ensure that workers must be paid substantially
because wages are the only sources of  their families’ survival.

“ The Macapagal-Arroyo government must protect the interest of its
workers at all times.  But unfortunately, most of the time, it
collaborates with unscrupulous big business to make the lives of
Filipino workers harder. If it is really sincere to help the workers,
it must use all its powers that they are not retrenched and at the
same time receive decent wages. Actually, during these hard times that
the Macapagal-Arroyo must provide an immediate relief through a
lagislated P125 wage increase for all workers in the private sector,”
Suyat stressed.

Suyat also reminded the government that mimimum wage varies in all
regions becase of its “wage rationalization policy” which means that
most of  areas in the countries are paying workers dismally.

“ In the Southern Tagalog wherein most electronics companies are
located,  the highest minimum wage is pegged at  P320. Then, we can
assume because of PGMA’s declaration
that workers in the electronics companies are just receiving  P160
daily.  How can workers  and their families live decently with that
meager amount? Even government data from the National Wages and
Productivity Commission states that the daily cost of living in the
Southern Tagalog region is  P900.  It is a pity that the
Macapagal-Arroyo government was also instrumental for the blackmail
that the workers must choose between retrenchment or wage cuts. This
is highly condemnable,” Suyat ended.

At the start of the US subprime mortgage crisis last year, the
Philippine electronics industry accounted for 70 percent of exports
and employed more than 300,000 people.