By Mae Singuay

A local workers group in Negros has expressed its support for the proposed P750 wage increase across-the-board.

General Alliance of Workers Association (GAWA) Secretary-General Wennie Sancho said the bill was filed by the Gabriela Women’s Party in the House of Representatives in the midst of rising inflation rates and shrinking incomes.

“They [workers] shall be entitled to security of tenure, humane conditions of work and a living wage,” the part of the bill said.

The party-list group declared that it was high time to give “flesh and substance” to social justice and human rights.

Sancho said the P750 wage increase will narrow the gap between the family daily wage and the present minimum wage, which is calculated to be more than P1,100 from P350 to P570 per day.

A shift from a daily minimum wage to a national living wage will realize the workers’ economic emancipation from the bondage of poverty, he said.

The GAWA leader said while the purchasing power is deteriorating and the real wage is depreciating, a significant wage increase is a necessity.

Sancho said it is time to bring wage rates to living standards. However, the workers’ meager income is not sufficient to meet the basic needs of their families./MS, WDJ