KMU slams Aquino’s Labor Day rejection of P125 wage hike

“Callous rejection, erroneous computation.”

That was labor center Kilusang Mayo Uno’s reaction to Pres. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III’s rejection of calls for a P125 across-the-board wage increase nationwide, saying the president is protecting capitalists’ profits at the expense of the country’s workers.

KMU condemned Pres. Aquino for rejecting the workers’ call in his Labor Day speech, in which the president multiplied the proposed wage hike with the country’s entire 40-million labor force, and not just with the wage and salary workers.

“Rejecting workers’ long-standing call for a significant wage hike on the basis of an erroneous computation, and on Labor Day at that, is the height of insensitivity towards the plight of workers,” said Elmer “Bong” Labog, KMU chairperson.

“In his haste to show that workers are asking for too much in order to protect big capitalists’ profits, the president has again used an incorrect computation. It is only the country’s wage and salary workers who will benefit from a P125 across-the-board wage increase, not the entire labor force,” he added.

Erroneous computation

KMU said that multiplied with just the number of the country’s wage and salary employees, which stands at 15 million, the president’s computation will yield P536 billion, not P1.43 trillion.

The labor center cited independent think-tank Ibon Foundation’s March 2012 study showing that a P125 across-the-board wage hike nationwide will only amount to a 12% reduction in capitalists’ profits.

Ibon used the 2009 Annual Survey of Philippine Business and Industry or ASPBI of the National Statistics Office.

“A significant wage increase should not lead to massive layoffs, factory closures, and inflation. It should be reduced from capitalists’ profits, which have been increasing through the years,” Labog said.

Highest in Southeast Asia?

KMU also responded to the president’s claim that the country now has the highest minimum wage in Southeast Asia.

“The problem with the president is that he is always taking the viewpoint of foreign investors, never of Filipino workers. The overall situation of workers should be assessed, over and beyond the minimum wage that they receive,” Labog said.

“Workers in other countries may be receiving lower minimum wages in nominal terms, but they may be enjoying lower prices and state subsidy for social services such as education and health. What’s clear is that Filipino workers are suffering from high prices, expensive social services, and general hunger and poverty,” he added.

KMU cited a 2011 research of the UBS (formerly Union Bank of Switzerland) which shows Manila having the third lowest purchasing power among the 73 cities surveyed. Mumbai, India has the lowest and Jakarta, Indonesia has the second lowest.