Senator Risa Hontiveros on Wednesday, December 7 reiterated her call for the government to consider granting workers' demands for salary adjustments in order to address runaway inflation, which surged to 8.0 percent in November.

Hontiveros said she particularly supports the call for wage hikes as contained in the 5-Point Labor Agenda being pushed by the Nagkaisa Labor Coalition and United Labor and has committed to work for reforms in the wage fixing mechanisms at the Senate.

The senator said the proposed pay hike is justified because, in addition to inflation, productivity-based wage adjustments have never been granted by Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Boards.

“Ngayong papalapit na ang Pasko, sana naman ay mapakinggan na ang hiling ng mga manggagawa na umento sa sahod (Now that Christmas is approaching, I hope that the request of the workers to increase their wages will be heard),” Hontiveros said.

“Ang patuloy na pagtaas ng inflation, ngunit wala namang pagtaas sa sweldo ay lalong nagbabaon sa ating mga kababayan sa kahirapan (The constant increase in inflation, but no increase in wages, is further burying our countrymen in poverty),” she said.

Hontiveros pointed out most minimum wages are set around the poverty line. “But it is undisputed that labor productivity has been going up while real wages have been at the same level for decades now,” she said.

“As production technology is improved, our workers have to work more. Kapag mataas ang productivity, hindi makatarungan na pareho lang ang bayad,” the Senator said.

The senator said workers must not be made to carry the burden of battling economic crises everywhere. The government, she said, should find a mechanism to prevent further erosion of the purchasing power of Filipinos by regulating the high inflation rate on basic household expenditures.

“Sa halip na pagtuunan ng pansin ang pagtatatag ng Maharlika Fund na maaari pang makabawas sa pondo ng manggagawa sa SSS at GSIS, mas importanteng mabawi ang halagang nawala sa kanila at siguruduhin na abot-kaya ang presyo ng pagkain, kuryente at tubig (Instead of focusing on the establishment of the Maharlika Fund that could further reduce the funds of SSS and GSIS workers, it is more important to recover the amount they lost and make sure that the price of food, electricity and water is affordable),” the lawmaker stressed.