Workers Frustrated Over Lower House Decision to Take Early Break

 Workers Frustrated Over Lower House Decision to Take Early Break

The long-delayed substantial wage hike demanded by Filipino workers found no room this Christmas in the House of Representatives. Meanwhile, prices of food and transport continue to soar, and even the ILO reported that the Filipinos’ wages suffered one of the biggest cuts in Asia.
By MARYA SALAMAT
Bulatlat.com
MANILA – “It looks like our legislators were very excited in having their Christmas vacation,” said Ferdinand Gaite, co-convener of the alliance Koalisyon ng Progresibong Manggagawa at Mamamayan or KPMM. His group went to the gates of the House of Representatives on Wednesday to push for the approval of House Bill 375 which seeks to legislate a P125 ($2.82) across-the-board wage increase nationwide.

Filed by Anakpawis Rep. Rafael Mariano last July 1, the bill was supposed to be scheduled for deliberations by the House Committee on Labor and Employment that day, but it did not push through because the congressional sessions adjourned earlier than scheduled.

There were supposed to be two more working days at least before the Congress was to have adjourned for Christmas, Gaite said as his group pressed on with their planned brief program before the House of Representatives.

With Gaite were workers from the public and private sectors. They were carrying big signboards bearing the group’s demand for a P125 ($2.82) wage hike, as well as big and small Christmas lanterns. The workers’ visit to the gates of the House of Representatives was supposed to be their way of “sending their message of hope” to lawmakers for the passage of the wage hike bill.

But the workers were forced to swallow yet another disappointment. Last Wednesday’s scheduled deliberations would have been the first since the bill was last tackled by the House Committee on Labor last September 2008.... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://bulatlat.com/main/2010/12/18/workers-frustrated-over-lower-house-decision-to-take-early-break/