A cyclic event come first of May is the staging of rallies and demonstrations across the length and breadth of our archipelago by workers seeking just compensation for their sweat and labor. The demand for just wages that could support a decent living of a family had always been a contentious issue between capitalists and laborers.
Wails by labor groups seeking just wages are tactically met by capitalists with threats of closure of business and establishments if they are forced to give workers’ demands. In the confrontation of opposing forces, laborers are always the weaker hapless party as against the mighty and wealthy. After the fiery orations from the laborers, the issues are settled in the silence of a prevailing repetitious setup where workers succumb to the threat of losing their jobs if they insist on their demands.
The situation is prevalent among workers in the private sector and the bureaucracy. The setup where wages are legislated leads to laws that are often dictated by powerful lobby groups from the wealthy and mighty. The causes being raised by workers seldom find support in the halls of the legislature as champions of such demands are too nil to overcome the majority. With salary standards inked in statutes, the contention of business and management is anchored on the law notwithstanding its inequity against the helpless working class. Unseen repercussions of the prevailing setup had adverse effects on society.
This writer posits his view of the unjust wages as root of the social ills besetting this Filipino nation. The inadequacy of workers’ wages to support a decent living of the family had pushed couples to leave the home for gainful employment just to make both ends meet, though unfortunately still not. The joint earnings of both father and mother still fall short to provide for the basic needs of the family just to live decent lives.
With father and mother out of the home, children are deprived of the parental care that ought to be given by the mother. The pain of a mother leaving her children to care for other’s children just to earn something to help the husband feed the family is a deep wound suffered by the family which is just borne in silence. Children left astray or in the care of old folks in the family, parents of the parents or relatives or nearest kin, is a reality among poor families that comprise the great majority of the cross-section of our society.
An objective gaze at the nation’s landscape brings a grim picture of workers struggling to survive from their impoverished situation while the wealthy and mighty are living in luxury from huge profits out of the earnings that should have been given for workers’ just wages. Threats of businesses closing seldom happen as companies and establishments continue flourishing and expanding.
While workers, especially those overseas, are labelled as heroes, the sad reality is that workers are modern slaves in perennial debts. It boils down to the root cause, the unseen labor manacles.
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