Cuenco mulls 25% across the board increase in wages

Cebu South District Rep. Antonio Cuenco yesterday expressed his support for a legislated wage increase.

Cuenco, who is a member of the House Committee on Labor, said he will propose a 25 percent across the board increase on top of the minimum wages per region, during the committee's deliberations on pending bills asking for legislated wage increases on Monday.

He said there are several bills asking for legislated wages filed before the committee but these were not discussed because of the opposition from many capitalists.

"These are filed at the committee a long time ago. I think it's time to increase the wage of the laborers," Cuenco told The FREEMAN yesterday.

He clarified that there is no need to file for a separate bill for his proposal for a 25 percent increase because he would bring it up during their deliberations on the bills that have already been filed.

Once approved, he said that the 25 percent across the board increase would apply to both private and public sector employees and will be good for the coming years because the Congress need not enact a law every year to grant increases in workers' wages.

"And I'm glad the President agreed to adjust the wages of workers because we could not rely on the wage boards because they are dominated by capitalists," Cuenco added. "I hope the majority will agree with my proposal and I hope the president would sign it."

However, Cuenco said that to hasten the deliberations on the bills seeking for legislated wage, President Arroyo should issue a certification that the bills are urgent.

Two days ago, Arroyo requested Congress to prioritize a reasonable legislated wage hike to mitigate the impact of a higher cost of living on the daily wage earners in the light of the implementation of the Expanded Value Added Tax.

She said that she asked Congress to enact a reasonable minimum wage law "on top of the legislative agenda to ease the pressure on our workers, even as we continue to cut waste in government, push the austerity drive, and broaden services to the most needy."

This as workers staged protest rallies against the implementation of eVAT and demand for wage increase because of the rising cost of basic commodities caused by the implementation of the new tax law. - Wenna A. Berondo