“P100 wage hike, not oil price hikes!”
Thus the labor group Defend Jobs Philippines urged in reaction to the latest big-time oil price hike implemented by oil companies.
Based on the group’s oil price monitoring, costs of gasoline and diesel increased seven times in just the span of two months this year, amounting to P5.35 and P5.30 per liter, respectively, while price of kerosene increased six times with an equivalent of P4.65 per liter hike. Meanwhile, price of LPG per liter increased P2.96 and Auto LPG by P1.66 this year.
According to Defend Jobs Philippines, oil companies implemented a minimal price rollback of its products only once this 2021, ranging from only P0.10 to P0.15 per liter.
“The series of big-time hikes on the costs of oil and petroleum products were additional burden to the already loaded shoulders of Filipino workers in the light of the consistent price surges of basic commodities and services in this time of a pandemic,” said Defend Jobs Philippines spokesperson. Christian Lloyd Magsoy.
“The government must immediately do something to stop these unlimited impositions of oil price hikes in the country. These series of oil price adjustments and the rising cost of living today during a national public health emergency call for urgency for the administration to act on in the soonest possible time!,” Magsoy added.
Magsoy insisted that aside from intervening on the deregulated status of oil pricing in the country in a form of imposing price caps on oil and petroleum products or junking the Oil Deregulation Law, they urge the Duterte government to prioritize and speed up the implementation of a P100 emergency wage relief across-the-board increase.
On Monday, Defend Jobs Philippines filed a formal petition at the Labor Department’s National Wages and Productivity Board pressing for a P100 emergency wage relief across-the-board increase.
“Bringing back the lost value of our current minimum wage by implementing a P100 wage hike to all workers across the country can somehow help our labor force cope with the deep impacts of the soaring prices and the pandemic,” said Magsoy.
Magsoy also slammed the reaction of the Employers’ Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP) on their filed wage hike petition, saying that this is “counter-productive” and “untimely.”
“We are not surprised with how ECOP will react and will try to belittle and shoot down our petition for a P100 across-the-board wage hike. Calling the clamor of our workers ‘counter-productive’ and ‘untimely’ during a pandemic only showed how heartless and anti-labor they are,” said Magsoy.
Defend Jobs Philippines urges officials and members of ECOP to take up the P537 challenge by trying to live with only the minimum wage value on hand.
“ECOP officials and members should try once in their life how was it living with only a minimal cash on hand in the sea of surging prices of basic commodities and services. We want them to experience first-hand the everyday plight of our working people then tell us that our call for wage hike is untimely and counter-productive,” ended Magsoy.
