The proposed P200 minimum daily wage hike became one step closer to its anticipated, historic enactment on Wednesday afternoon, June 4 after it was approved on third and final reading by the House of Representatives.
Garnering 172 "yes" votes during nominal voting was House Bill (HB) No.11376, titled the "Wage Hike for Minimum Wage Workers Act". Nobody voted "no", while one abstained.
An ecstatic Deputy Speaker TUCP Party-list Rep. Raymond Democrito Mendoza--a longtime worker's rights advocate--presided over Wednesday's session and declared the measure as approved on third reading.
The last time a legislated wage hike bill was enacted was in 1989.
"We kept the faith. Under the leadership of House Speaker Ferdinand Martin Gomez Romualdez--who who stood with us in this long, hard struggle, and accomplished what no other Speaker in the past 36 years has dared to do--we are righting the historic wrong of barya-barya (measley hikes) from regional wage boards," Mendoza later said on the plenary floor.
The P200 wage hike bill, which covers private sector workers, was approved on second reading last Feb. 3, or just before Congress went on a four-month recess for the mid-term elections. Mendoza served as lead sponsor of the measure.
The solons reconvened sessions in the current 19th Congress only last Monday, June 2.
Earlier this year, Speaker Romualdez--acting on the instruction of President Marcos--rallied his congressman-colleagues to expedite the passage of HB No.11376. The solons responded, as the bill zoomed past the committee level and was endorsed for plenary consideration.
The measure stated that the daily rate of all minimum wage workers in the private sector, regardless of employment status, including those in contractual and sub-contractual arrangements, whether agricultural or nonagricultural, shall be increased by P200 per day.
To assist in the compliance of the wage increase, HB No.11376 stated that small enterprises may avail of the incentives from the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) subject to the implementing rules and regulations (IRR).
Under a new provision, Barangay Micro Business Enterprises (BMBEs) shall be exempted from coverage of the wage hike.
It also says that any person, corporation, trust, firm, partnership, association, or entity found in violation of any provision of the measure shall face a fine ranging from P100,000 to P500,000 and/or imprisonment for two to four years.
HB No.11376's counterpart measure in the upper chamner, Senate Bill (SB) No. 2534, was approved on third reading on Feb 19, 2024. It proposes a P100 increase in the daily minimum wage of workers in the private sector.
The two bills will undergo harmonization in Bicameral Conference Committee hearings to be attend by both House members and senators.