UniTeam senatorial candidate Jinggoy Estrada has called for an increase in workers' wages a few days prior to the commemoration of Labor Day on May 1.
“It’s been more than a month since I joined the workers’ clamor for a wage increase. What’s taking the wage boards so long to approve it?” Estrada said in a press statement on Thursday, April 28.
“Even before the pandemic, the average minimum wage of workers is already insufficient to make ends meet. With the spike in global crude oil and food prices due to Russia’s attack on Ukraine, the low take home pay of workers has been a critical problem,” he added.
The Senate bet said that he would pursue a reform of the Wage Rationalization Act, explaining that the national government “should have more flexibility in adjusting the basic pay of ordinary workers especially in times of crises or emergencies".
Republic (RA) Act 6727 or the Wage Rationalization Act makes it so that regional minimum wages for agricultural and non-agricultural workers would be decided by the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Boards.