Millions of Filipino workers are looking towards their company’s 13th month pay and Christmas bonus payout as the only hope to temporarily cope with the continuing increase of basic goods, following the big-time price increases in gasoline and cooking fuel beginning this month, the Associated Labor Unions-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines said.
ALU-TUCP spokesman Alan Tanjusay said the series of increases in prices of food, gasoline and cooking gas are significant additional economic burden for the working people hit by pandemic-induced massive unemployment and underemployment phenomenon.
Oil firms announced this week an increase of P1.45 per liter of gasoline, P2.05 in diesel and kerosene.
They also announced an increase of P7.35 to P7.40 per kilogram of liquified petroleum gas or P80.85 to P82.40 per 11-kilogram standard gas tank, to be implemented in two tranches on October 1 and October 8.
The labor group is seeking the government’s help to address the increasing prices by way of putting up price limits, opening up more establishments, and shortening the curfew hours.
Gasoline and LPG price hikes came a month after the Department of Trade Industry granted the petition of manufacturers to increase the prices of basic food essentials in September.
The big-time price hikes will further push up the prices of rice, fish, meat, and spices and vegetables and make the cost of living more expensive, deepen poverty, adversely affect family nutrition, and directly impact productivity of workers, the union said.
“With the eroding purchasing power of stagnant wages and in view of series of increases in prices of food and costs of services last month and this month, workers seriously look to the 13th month pay payout and depend on the Christmas bonus payday as a lifeline in coping with the rising cost of living,” Tanjusay said.
“Many workers, in fact, have already loaned and borrowed in advance the amount of their end of the year 13th month pay to cover for the present rising family expenses and are looking forward to its payout beginning on December 15th,” he added.
Presidential Decree (PD) 851 also known as the 13th-Month Pay Law, requires employers to pay all their rank-and-file employees a 13th-month pay in cash not later than December 24 of every year.
