By Jun Cinco

Published: September 9, 2012

What: Workers March vs. Two-Tiered Wage System and for P125 Wage Hike Bill
When:  10 Sept. 2012, 11:30 am
Where: Department of Labor and Employment, Intramuros. Workers will then march to Mendiola which they hope to reach by 3:00 pm.

Saying “No to wage cut! Yes to wage hike!” workers under labor center Kilusang Mayo Uno, including many from the Southern Tagalog region, will march tomorrow against the Aquino government’s Two-Tiered Wage System and for the immediate legislation of House Bill 375 or the P125 Wage Hike Bill.

The 2TWS, the workers say, amounts to a wage cut for workers, as it sets a floor wage lower than the existing minimum wage in many of the country’s regions except Metro Manila.

While the minimum wage is theoretically aimed at meeting the subsistence needs of workers, the floor wage simply aims to prevent workers from being classified as “poor” according to the Aquino government’s new poverty threshold computations.

In the Southern Tagalog region, for example, the floor wage was pegged at P255, lower than the P337 minimum wage in the region’s Growth Corridor Area, where the largest concentration of workers is located.

KMU vows to intensify protests for the passage of the P125 Wage Hike Bill before the year ends, saying the House of Representatives will most likely fail to tackle important legislation by next year.