By Adrian H. Halili, Reporter

LABOR GROUPS said on Thursday they were willing to compromise on a P100 legislated wage hike just before Congress adjourned.

The P100 nationwide wage hike had been the Senate’s position as the two chambers hashed out their versions of the bill in bicameral conference committee, but the two chambers failed to arrive at a compromise before time ran out.

Asked about how labor plans to proceed in the next Congress, Federation of Free Workers President Jose G. Matula said via Viber: “There will be an assessment with members of the National Wage Coalition (NWC).”

On Wednesday, Congress adjourned without approving the bicameral conference committee report on the minimum wage hike, with the two sides far apart on a final number.

At the last minute, the NWC had called on the House, which backs a P200 wage hike, to adopt the Senate’s version of the bill.

“The National Wage Coalition agreed to a compromise to adopt the Senate’s P100 wage hike bill due to lack of time. But the House kept pushing its position until time ran out,” Mr. Matula said.

Last week, the House of Representatives approved on third and final reading House Bill 11376, which proposed a P200 across-the-board daily wage increase for private sector workers.

The Senate’s P100 wage hike proposal was contained in Senate Bill 2534, approved in February 2024.

He said the P100 proposal would have helped ease some of the hardship faced by workers in dealing with the high price of goods.

However, the economic managers intervened, warning that the enactment of the wage hike bill would have harmed the economy.

Mr. Matula said the economic managers effectively blocked the wage hike bill.

Meanwhile, the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) rued Congressional foot-dragging on the wage hike measure.

“Years of struggle had finally pushed Congress to pass legislated wage increase which, while far below the amount for a family living wage, would have given Filipino workers some respite from the burgeoning inflation,” KMU Secretary General Jerome Adonis said.

Mr. Adonis added that the “dilly dallying” of Congress denied workers their first legislated nationwide wage hike since the 1980s.

Benjamin B. Velasco, an assistant professor with the University of the Philippines-Diliman School of Labor and Industrial Relations, said labor groups should continue with evidence-based advocacies for a legislated wage hike in the upcoming Congress.

“Unions need to scale up the campaign by organizing and mobilizing workers behind the wage demand. It cannot just be survey numbers and social media likes,” Mr. Velasco said via Messenger chat. “Workers need to vote with their feet if they want an increase in salaries and improve their welfare.”

He added that the labor movement has gained new allies with incoming progressive lawmakers in the Senate and the House.

“I expect that wage hikes will continue to be a burning issue for the 20^th Congress along with the demand for regulating contractualization,” he said.