BMP
MEDIA RELEASE:
10 May 2011
Workers now condemned to ‘Rock salt diet’ - BMP
Militant labor center Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP) today bewailed the recent decision of the NCR wage boards to grant an additional P22 cost-of-living allowance.
“This is not even a wage increase,” said Leody de Guzman, BMP President. He continued, “While the President is enjoying a rockstar lifestyle with his game consoles and Porsche, ordinary Filipino workers are made to suffer on a rock salt diet.”
The labor leader also explained that because COLA is not considered as part of the daily wage increase, this will not affect workers’ other remunerations like overtime pay, night differential, 13th month pay, among other things. Alluding to the softdrink flavor, de Guzman quipped, “This COLA adjustment is not even enough to buy a liter of cola.”
“What’s worse is that this order is peppered with exemptions. Included in the exemptions are companies recently affected by natural calamities as if their workers are also exempted from the economic crisis,” he continued.
According to the studies of BMP, an average Filipino family needs at least a thousand pesos a day to afford a decent lifestyle “beyond sardines and instant noodles.”
“No wonder, Aquino’s approval ratings plummeted from 64 to 46. We expect this to drop even more as his government continues to ignore the calls for fair increases in salaries and wages,” de Guzman concluded. ###
