BACKBENCHER
Rod P. Kapunan
5/5-6/2012
If it is true that in every commodity produced by the application of labor, capitalists earn their profit by forcing the workers to produce an amount beyond what they are paid for in what Karl Marx termed as "surplus value", then there would be no reason for some businesses to go bankrupt. Maybe Marx was correct, but his theory is more of a general proposition than a realistic assessment on how that theory would work in a system such as ours. This is the same fallacious proposition that has blindly goaded much of our workers to demand higher wages as their defensive mechanism to overcome the inflationary increases in the prices of basic commodities.
Following the same proposition, they are wholly unaware that a general increase in the minimum wage could trigger another round of inflation that often puts to an end that vicious cycle, for then employment comes to an end for many of them. They always tend to focus their demand on wage, which through years of unabated increases, have reared its ugly heads of employment scarcity and consigned the remaining jobs to labor-only contracting, thus effectively shamming their constitutional right to security of tenure.
Many of them could not see the difference between employment and wage or could analyze that the logical basis for any wage increase is employment. In fact, without employment there could be no talk about labor rights or much more for them to collectively organize for their own welfare and protection, including their right to demand for higher wages. But as it is, they want the best of both worlds, envisioning a workers' paradise that even the former Soviet Union failed to fulfil its promise to liberate the workers from the yoke of capitalist exploitation.
For the incessant demand for wage increases, contractualization made a rapid inroad that today, regular workers have been marginalized. Residually, contractualization destroyed the very system that promoted organized labor, and labor invariably lost its clout to bargain for higher wages, better rights and benefits. Unfortunately, the government that has consented to this odd socialist practice of fixing the cost of wage pushed the cost of labor to the limits; that today, the country stands as one of the highest in minimum wage in Southeast Asia but sourly failed to match its productive output.
Yes, many employers will possibly comply with the adjusted minimum wage, but in so doing would resort to the nefarious practice of labor-only contracting. They may comply to give their employees what they are entitled to receive under the law. But that would not allow any of them to stay beyond six months for that would mean their regularization, that by law would compel them to pay incremental benefits due to a regular employee, contribute to the Social Security System, PhilHealth, Pag-Ibig, Employees Compensation, pay for their 13th month pay, and possibly haggle with the labor unions which happen to companies that opt for direct hiring.
It is for these reasons why many employers are scratching their heads on where to get P426 daily to pay the minimum wage. If they will have to include their monthly contributions and pro rata the 13th month pay, that would run to over P500 a day. The sad part is that increased wages did not result in the efficiency of our workers. For our outlandish pricing in the cost of goods, our products have gradually been eased out of the market. This explains why in our time, a worker who is hired for his labor need not always result in him producing a surplus value for the capitalist. Employers now are likely to lose than earn.
Workers have to live up to that hard reality that for them to enjoy their constitutional right to security of tenure, they have to accept that compromise postulate that there is a need to adopt a new wage mechanism by making it flexible. The system of minimum wage in a capitalist system is a US model that has gotten their economy nowhere, and is being imposed here by their minions so for us to suffer the same fate. We have to restudy, not discard, the Marxist theory; that for as long as capitalism prevails, the socialist mechanism of pegging wage would have no place in our system. In fact, treating the value of labor as an intangible commodity is no different from the rest that can be sold and exchanged in the open market. Mass production in capitalism has effectively substituted and reduced labor as a commodity vulnerable to the indefensible vicissitudes of the law of supply and demand.
Only under a regime of deregulated wage could our workers put the economic system in labor back on track. Abolishing the minimum wage would not only unburden the employers of the high cost of wage, but could restore our competitiveness, usher in more employment, which is what we really want, generate more production with an assurance of continuity of employment so they could exercise their right to collectively bargain based on the true spirit of collective bargaining negotiations.
(rodkap@yahoo.com.ph)
Following the same proposition, they are wholly unaware that a general increase in the minimum wage could trigger another round of inflation that often puts to an end that vicious cycle, for then employment comes to an end for many of them. They always tend to focus their demand on wage, which through years of unabated increases, have reared its ugly heads of employment scarcity and consigned the remaining jobs to labor-only contracting, thus effectively shamming their constitutional right to security of tenure.
Many of them could not see the difference between employment and wage or could analyze that the logical basis for any wage increase is employment. In fact, without employment there could be no talk about labor rights or much more for them to collectively organize for their own welfare and protection, including their right to demand for higher wages. But as it is, they want the best of both worlds, envisioning a workers' paradise that even the former Soviet Union failed to fulfil its promise to liberate the workers from the yoke of capitalist exploitation.
For the incessant demand for wage increases, contractualization made a rapid inroad that today, regular workers have been marginalized. Residually, contractualization destroyed the very system that promoted organized labor, and labor invariably lost its clout to bargain for higher wages, better rights and benefits. Unfortunately, the government that has consented to this odd socialist practice of fixing the cost of wage pushed the cost of labor to the limits; that today, the country stands as one of the highest in minimum wage in Southeast Asia but sourly failed to match its productive output.
Yes, many employers will possibly comply with the adjusted minimum wage, but in so doing would resort to the nefarious practice of labor-only contracting. They may comply to give their employees what they are entitled to receive under the law. But that would not allow any of them to stay beyond six months for that would mean their regularization, that by law would compel them to pay incremental benefits due to a regular employee, contribute to the Social Security System, PhilHealth, Pag-Ibig, Employees Compensation, pay for their 13th month pay, and possibly haggle with the labor unions which happen to companies that opt for direct hiring.
It is for these reasons why many employers are scratching their heads on where to get P426 daily to pay the minimum wage. If they will have to include their monthly contributions and pro rata the 13th month pay, that would run to over P500 a day. The sad part is that increased wages did not result in the efficiency of our workers. For our outlandish pricing in the cost of goods, our products have gradually been eased out of the market. This explains why in our time, a worker who is hired for his labor need not always result in him producing a surplus value for the capitalist. Employers now are likely to lose than earn.
Workers have to live up to that hard reality that for them to enjoy their constitutional right to security of tenure, they have to accept that compromise postulate that there is a need to adopt a new wage mechanism by making it flexible. The system of minimum wage in a capitalist system is a US model that has gotten their economy nowhere, and is being imposed here by their minions so for us to suffer the same fate. We have to restudy, not discard, the Marxist theory; that for as long as capitalism prevails, the socialist mechanism of pegging wage would have no place in our system. In fact, treating the value of labor as an intangible commodity is no different from the rest that can be sold and exchanged in the open market. Mass production in capitalism has effectively substituted and reduced labor as a commodity vulnerable to the indefensible vicissitudes of the law of supply and demand.
Only under a regime of deregulated wage could our workers put the economic system in labor back on track. Abolishing the minimum wage would not only unburden the employers of the high cost of wage, but could restore our competitiveness, usher in more employment, which is what we really want, generate more production with an assurance of continuity of employment so they could exercise their right to collectively bargain based on the true spirit of collective bargaining negotiations.
(rodkap@yahoo.com.ph)
