BACOLOD City — A labor group in the Negros Island Region (NIR) has called on the national government to include private-sector minimum wage earners in cash assistance programs, warning that employment does not necessarily translate to financial security amid rising living costs.
In a Labor Day press statement, Wennie Sancho, secretary-general of the General Alliance of Workers Association (GAWA), announced the filing of a formal protest letter condemning what the group described as the continued exclusion of minimum wage earners from emergency cash aid, or “ayuda.”
Sancho said the protest represents “hundreds of thousands” of workers across the Negros Island Region and Western Visayas, including factory workers, sales personnel, security guards, janitorial staff, fast-food crews, and business process outsourcing (BPO) employees who rely on statutory minimum wages.
According to GAWA, while sectors such as transport workers, farmers, and fisherfolk received targeted subsidies in 2025 and 2026 to cushion the impact of rising fuel prices, fertilizer costs, and climate-related disruptions, minimum wage earners have been excluded based solely on their employment status.
The group argued that such exclusion raises constitutional concerns, citing the equal protection clause under the 1987 Constitution. It also warned that the policy may inadvertently penalize formal-sector workers who are tax-compliant, while creating incentives for informal employment.
GAWA emphasized that the current daily minimum wage in Western Visayas, pegged at P550, has significantly eroded due to inflation.
The group estimates that its real purchasing power has declined to around P412.50, driven by increases in energy costs, transportation fares, and food prices.
“Having a job is not the same as having enough,” Sancho said, stressing that minimum wage earners face the same economic pressures as other vulnerable sectors.
The group is urging the government to grant an emergency wage subsidy and to include private-sector minimum wage earners in all ongoing and future ayuda programs, with coverage retroactive to the first quarter of 2026 in Western Visayas.
Sancho further underscored that government policies should reflect the reality that wages are no longer sufficient to meet the basic needs of an average family, as defined by national economic benchmarks.
“Labor Day is not a holiday for speeches. It is a reckoning,” he said.
The protest letter, addressed to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., serves as an open appeal for immediate policy action.
GAWA said the move is without prejudice to other legal and administrative remedies available to workers under existing labor laws./PN
