Workers insist on pay hike, not happy with Arroyo’s P40-billion package of non-wage benefits

Is she really an economist? All you need is common sense to know that what the workers need is wage increase, remember the line “a happy worker, works harder” from one of those old films about the Exodus?

The ‘gift’ from GMA is something, but then again, it misses the entire point.
How could a worker with a six-month contract on or below minimum pay could afford a housing loan?

How could he start having savings from the income tax exemption while RVAT sucks away at his meager wage?

Tsk tsk tsk….and to think she went to Harvard to study.

02 May 2006

Gloria gave state workers salary standardization??? FYI, the govt employees salary standardization is in efect for how many years already, the problem is, there were no salary standardizatio/increases for state workers for the past 4 to 5 years. (Is she joking, claiming again what is already sitpulated). Condone the GSIS/SSS laon charges & surcharges – Members of the GSIS and SSS are having difficulty getting what is theirs, and gloria wants to condone??? the remedy is to remove garcia and study the allowances of the members of the board of trustee> Do you know how much a single trustee receives monthly??? its 150,000+++ a month, and do you know haw many trustees are there??? more than ten and you multiply that (e.g 150,000 x10 x12) that’s how they are receiving their allowances. Get rid (reduced it)of these trustees and give it back to the members, and all will be happy, GSIS health support, ETC… removed garcia and study the perks of these trustees and give it back to the members, GSIS is losing money becayuse of garcia and the trustees9wala namang gingagawa yang mga iyan e). How can a member loan from PAG-IBIG, if their salary will not meet its requirements, whether lowering the intertest rates, if their monthly salary does not meets its minimum requirements, its useless, call centers training, the country’s english proficiency is falling, we need to make our teachers teach teir students the right english, point is, we have to improve the educational quality of the teachers and students, from there we can move forward, tax exemption from the minimum earners??? whare is the government going to get the sum of all taxes paid by our minimum wage earners, except to impose new taxes, (to overcome the taxes lost). Before gloria announced the rehabilitation of the PGH, it has been rehabilitated weeks ago, along witht eh Ospital ng Maynila, who is she trying to fool????, Housing, even the new AFP housing cannot be afforded by the lowly ranking members of the AFP, is that what they called affordable housing, ano na ang kaknin ng mga sundalo???

Wages are really low in this country.Who is not for a wage increase.Increasing wages will also mean adding to the value of goods & services.It will also mean higher inflasion.Those same consmers who get the increase are the same people who will be paying more for the goods too.
In a way you don’t have to be an economist not to understand the cause & effect of things.
Doing business in the Philippines has high risk other then the high cost of doing business.
It’s a given that labor will only want a wage increase always.
Perhaps, what is more long term is that we may have more political peace so the investors take us more seriously & invest in our country to be able to generate more jobs.
We must factor-in also that we leave in a world economy w/ strong compitition from China in particular.
A wage increase can always happen but companies will also down size.
In a way goverment is doing it’s role in terms of offereing more benifits to workers in proportion to what the economy can handel.
I think the private sector should also do their bit in carrying the burden.

“In a way goverment is doing it’s role in terms of offereing more benifits to workers in proportion to what the economy can handel.”

what she meant maybe is the 12%(?) EVAT. :). and the working class should do more of carrying the burden by not asking for a a pay hike but endure the burden of price increases of our basic commodities.

or if you really want to help the country, lumayas ka na ng pilipinas. siguradong makakatulong ka sa ekonomiya at mapapaliit pa ang budget deficit ng bansa. afterall, these are the two great achievements of gloria. all praise pa ang iba diyan.

It used to be that many, many years ago Labor Day was celebrated with a grand parade at the Luneta. It was a fitting day to honor the workers. Waving of red flags was unheard of. Now you see so many red flags in every labor protest and public demonstrations. Red is the symbol of communist left. Ever since the left came to dominate labor groups, May 1 has become the day of national protests. Lost in the political maelstrom is the tribute that ordinary workers deserve to receive. What a pity.

joselu,

“The last legislated wage increase, recalled Fortaleza, was in 1989 which added P25 to the minimum wage.”

considering the devaluation of the peso against the dollar, the rising inflation rate, and other factors that have contributed to the degradation of the buying power of the peso, regional wage boards cannot alleviate the problem of low wages, considering that it is and has been a national issue for 17 years now.

the workers’ benefits from collected taxes you speak of is analogous to taking a guy’s ten peso bill and then returning it back to him… assuming, of course, that in processing the return there are no deductions based on “processing fees,” “keeping fees,” and the like, so to speak.

the administration did not proclaim that their role was to provide benefits to workers, but something more — GMA proclaimed that she’d create several million jobs.

of course, the result was another “I am sorry.”

I don’t subscribe to the “However little it may be it will always be something,” the “kesa wala” point of view. It encourages the existence of overworked and underpaid employees and underemployment — and one of the overarching results of the encouragement of this attitude is the Philippine diaspora, where OFWs would rather work elsewhere since the pay here is “kesa wala.”

Agree, Jester, but I would like to see that one day in May the left would leave the workers alone and let them relish the honor and tribute that they deserve out of the 365 days that they dominate them. Leave it to the left to protest everything that does not conform with their way of thinking.

Toro, a little bit of history tells us why flags on Labor day are red and why the left will always be a part of the celebrations.

The international working class holiday, Mayday, originated in pagan Europe. It was a festive holy day celebrating the first spring planting. The ancient Celts and Saxons celebrated May 1st as Beltane or the day of fire. Bel was the Celtic god of the sun. Mayday was eventually outlawed by the Catholic Church, which had to absorb most pagan rites to win over converts from the “Old Religion”, but Mayday was still celebrated by peasants until the late 1700’s. As part of the celebration, people would make jokes and poke fun of local authorities and this probably led to modern-day protests.

Modern Mayday celebrations evolved from 1886. On May 1, Americans and Canadians held national strikes to limit the working day to eight hours. In Chicago, confrontation between strikers and non-strikers in a factory ensued and the strikers were attacked by police and six workers were killed. Workers gathered the next day at Haymarket Square in Illinois to protest the police brutality the day before. A bomb killed eight policemen, leading to the arrest of eight union leaders. Four were executed after a controversial trial. In Paris, 1889, the four were proclaimed as the Haymarket Martyrs by the Marxist International Working Men’s Association (known also as the Second International) and May 1 was declared as the international working class day. The red flag was adopted as the symbol of the blood of working class martyrs.

All over the world, May 1 is celebrated by workers, peasants and fisherfolk, women, and the youth with marches, protests, strikes, art shows spearheaded mostly by, who else, the leftists, of course.

Jester, There is no argueing that there is a need for a pay hike.Question is can the economy handel it? Since the last pay increase, has the economy really grown enough?
Yes I know, I deal w/ people everyday.In reality anyone can only do so much & make it in the form of benefits.
Yes, 17 years has passed but how has the economy grown.perhaps everybody was always so busy playing politics that major issues regarding the economy have never been addressed.
Like I said, perhaps wages can be raised too.Let’s face it. That too will come w/ a price. Companies will down-size, like it or not.
Because the brutal reality about economics is that things boil down to numbers & figures.
Yes, jobs can be created. It can be created if we are brave enough to put our acts together & concentrate on the matters that will do the Nation a long term good.
If we learn to separate issues from personalities.
The issue of the economic provision in charter change is part of a solution.
Unfortunately & sadly, the only way we can be in a postion of strenght is if & when we modernize & be innovative in our ways.
Sadly, we are not always in a position to say we don’t buy this or that.We should be more concerned of putting our act together. Stop the politics & get down to serious work.
Jester, we have to face it. The world has changed.Everyday, we you leave your house you step-into a bigger world.Turn on your computer & it’s a window to the world. This modern world has no bounderies.
I think the reality of the OFW’s should not be seen as just people having to leave their countries & their families in search for better jobs.
I think we must be proud of those Pinoys who can be competetive & in-demand for their skills.