Workers buck hike in SSS payments

Organized labor rejected yesterday any increase in the contributions of workers to the Social Security System as members of the militant Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP) picketed the SSS building on East Avenue in Quezon City.

In separate statements, BMP and Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) said a 14 percent increase in SSS contributions would drive the workers to starvation.

At Malacañang, President Arroyo told reporters SSS Administrator Corazon de la Paz has presented to her a proposal to gradually increase the SSS contributions of 24 million workers from 8.4 to 14 percent by 2005.

"The (SSS) has to socialize the premiums," the President said. "But I still do not say it’s OK with me. But if the (SSS) ever has to do that, it has to do it socialized."

KMU spokesman Sammy Malunes said the burden of resolving the financial problems of the SSS should not be passed on to workers, who can no longer afford any deductions from their daily wages.

"The proposal is unjustified and uncalled for, especially now that many business establishments declined to give wage a increase to their employees," he said.

"Workers will have to persist on smaller take-home pay once the SSS pushes through with its plan to increase the compulsory contributions and workers could not even stretch their meager wages to pay for their daily needs," Malunes said.

De la Paz should instead go after ousted President Joseph Estrada who had allegedly looted SSS funds, he added.

BMP secretary general Leody de Guzman said the Arroyo administration must ensure that the multibillion-peso SSS fund is not mismanaged and instead rechanneled from debt servicing and "pork barrel" to social welfare so that the living conditions of workers could be uplifted.

"With the present starvation services, it is immoral and unjust for the Gloria administration to reduce the workers’ take-home pay to resolve the impending insolvency of the SSS," he said.

"Why should the workers bear the brunt of keeping the SSS funds afloat, when it was bled dry not by its beneficiaries but by its previous administrators?" De Guzman asked.

The government has the capacity to subsidize the increase in the SSS contributions of workers, he added.

Mrs. Arroyo said she favors a "socialized increase" in the contributions of workers to the SSS to be implemented on a "possible voluntary" basis.

"So in other words, those who want to receive higher pensions or those in the higher income bracket should be the one to bear the bigger burden of the additional premium," she said.

However, Mrs. Arroyo said she has not yet approved the proposal to increase the compulsory contributions of workers to the SSS.

"That is still a study that the (SSS) has to make," she said. "So I was just giving them my general thoughts that you have to socialize the premiums."

Mrs. Arroyo said she has instructed the SSS to look for "other ways" to improve its "earning system" instead of increasing the contributions of members.

"But I think the message the (SSS) is trying to give is that benefits have been increasing without increased premium," she said. "So that’s why, if you want to receive additional benefits, there should be some kind of voluntary, over and above the minimum benefits."

Mrs. Arroyo said the premium for additional benefits of SSS members can be increased under a program for voluntary additional benefits.

"And also as I said, for those where you cannot avoid, if actuarially, that is still not enough, the increased premium should be biased towards the higher income levels," she said.

At the onset, employers’ groups have expressed reservations against the SSS proposal since it will also entail equivalent increase in the employers’ contributions to their members’ monthly contributions. – With reports from Romel Bagares, Marichu Villanueva