BY CHRYSEE G. SAMILLANO
The postponement of the wage deliberations schedules is a display of indifference on the part of government considering the importance of the wage issue, Wennie Sancho, secretary general of the General Alliance of Workers Association, said yesterday.
Sancho said to water down the wage issue is an insult to the workers who have been aspiring for a wage order on or before International Labor Day on May 1.
“It is unfortunate that as we are about to celebrate the International Labor Day on May 1, the economic situation of the workers in general is precarious. The workers are spiraling into despair, their wages have not kept up with the unabated increases in the prices of petroleum products, basic goods and services. Their purchasing power keeps going down but the prices of basic goods and services keeps on going up,” he said.
Sancho recalled that as early as March 7, he had already written the chairperson of the Regional Wage Board by way of a “worker’s manifesto” which is the embodiment of the miserable plight of the workers in Western Visayas, to initiate the process of minimum wage fixing because of the existence of a “supervening condition” as a primordial factor in the issuance of a wage increase order.
He said Labor and Employment 6 regional director and chairperson of the Regional Wage Board, Sixto Rodriguez, acted with dispatch on the manifestation of labor schedules of public hearings were set on April 8 in Negros Occidental, April 11 in Iloilo and April 12 in Aklan, with schedule for wage deliberation on April 22 and 23 which was later moved to April 29 and 29.
It seems that the process of minimum wage fixing was going on full speed because there was a marching order from the Secretary of Labor to expedite the process for a possible issuance of wage order on May 1 which is the commemoration of the International Labor Day, Sancho said.
But on April 12, things begun to change. They were informed that the wage deliberations schedules would not push through due to the unavailability of the Board members representing the management and the government sectors. He manifested his opposition to the schedules set by the Secretariat on May 12 and 13 for wage deliberations, he also said.
Sancho said he believes that the delay in the deliberation of the wage petition was deliberate and that the reasons are obvious. The government wanted to water down the wage issue and erase the national character of the wage struggle. The wage issue was taken for granted, despite the fact that it is badly needed by the workers.*
