Emily Fajardo, spokesperson of the labor group Manggagawa para sa Kalayaan ng Bayan (Makabayan), said the laborers from the Bataan Export Processing Zone, the Clark special economic zone, and the Subic Bay Freeport receive a minimum pay of only P160 per day.
"It is inhuman to subject economic zone workers to pitiful wages of as low as P160 a day amid oppressive working conditions and a government that cannot safeguard nor enforce laws to uphold workers’ rights," she said.
Fajardo stressed that Central Luzon workers want the government to implement Wage Order No. 9, issued in 2001, which grants a P30 emergency and cost of living allowance. This is in addition to the P35 increase in the minimum wage they were asking.
"This would do a lot in recovering the eroded value of wages due to inflation, transport and fuel rate hikes since November 2001," she added.
Fajardo disclosed that many workers in Central Luzon are being made to render overtime work without extra pay, even as many firms resort to "emergency hiring" and labor contracting to save on benefits that would otherwise accrue to workers with permanent status.
Makabayan said it will continue with plans to hold protest rallies on May 1, Labor Day, despite an announcement from Malacañang that the President would not announce any wage increase so as not be accused of electioneering.