P430 wage hike sought for Central Visayas workers

MANILA, Philippines — Workers in Central Visayas want more than double the current minimum daily pay to cope with the increasing prices of food and other basic commodities.

In a six-page petition, the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) sought an increase of P430 in the prevailing P404 daily minimum wage in the region.

“We are worried that with the looming price hikes in basic commodities including electricity and transport fares, our workers and their families will go hungry this time, and that is unacceptable to us. We are filing our wage petition today for our workers in Cebu and their families to survive,” TUCP president Raymond Democrito Mendoza said in a statement.

Minimum wage earners in Bohol, Cebu and Siquijor as well as in the cities of Cebu, Lapu-Lapu and Mandaue are barely surviving on their daily income, Mendoza said.

Since 2018, the labor group said prices of basic goods and services have gone up and eroded the purchasing power of workers.

Citing projections of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, the labor group said the inflation rate could hit 5.1 percent with the continuing increase in the prices of oil due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Mendoza said the P18 increase in the daily minimum wage granted by the wage board in January 2020 had dissipated even before it could be felt by wage earners due to the high cost of basic goods and services.