• Still, human rights based on history and facts are still considered
cheap around the globe
• It is the humble purpose of the researchers in this paper to unmask
the glaring reality happening in our midst, that is, violation of labor
rights.
• All of us are aware of it but we just took on the issue without even
batting an eyelash. It is our fervent hope that in our own little ways
we may lighten the burden during the interview
ackground
• The research deals mainly on minimum wage rate pursuant to the delegated powers
conferred to the Department of Labor, and guaranteed by the Constitution in relation
to the underpaid employees of a certain establishment (UNITOP).
• Based on Article XII Sec. 19 of the 1987 Constitution, The State shall afford full
protection to labor, local and overseas, organized and unorganized, and promote full
employment and equality of employment opportunities for all.
• Also, it provided for entitlement to security of tenure, humane conditions of work, and
a living wage. This study specifically points out the issue of wages, which should be a
“living wage”, which is the continuing issue in the UNITOP.
Region XI Minimum Wage
• The Labor code provides for the contract of employment
for work done or to be done, or for services rendered or
to be rendered and includes the fair and reasonable
value, as determined by the Secretary of Labor and
Employment.
• "Fair and reasonable value" shall not include any profit to the employer, or to any person
affiliated with the employer.
Review of Related Literature
• Karl Marx’s Fetishism of Commodities
• For him, the value of the commodity comes from the “labour”,
specifically the “human labour”.
Karl Marx’s Fetishism of
Commodities
• However, the capitalists treated commodities as
if object themselves with their own intrinsic
value.
• Nominal wage is the sum named in the contract while the real wage
is the exchange value of this sum.
• In other words, the nominal wage is the face value of the money
paid, and the real wage is the amount of goods this money will buy.
Paul Glenn’s Ethics on Man’s
Work
• Workman and employer agree on the wage to be paid; the workman gives his
labour, in terms of products (piece work) or of time (day-work, monthly work,
etc.), and the employer pays money.
• Thus between the employer and the labourer there is a contract made, and this
contract is bilateral, since there is an obligation imposed by the contract upon
both parties to it.
• Out of this situation arises the just wage. Certainly, the worker is
entitled to justice; hence he is entitled to a just wage.
Paul Glenn’s Ethics on Man’s
Work
• If men were free to regard human labor as a material good to be disposed of
like any commodity; if they were free to buy and sell it as they are free to buy
and sell tools, or land, or domestic animals; then the matter of deciding upon
the actual amount of a just wage would be comparatively simple.
• Men would simply look for the market value of labor and dispose of it at that
price. Labor is not merely a material commodity.
• The wage contract must be such as takes into account at least the
minimum essentials of a proper, full, and rounded human life.
Living Wage
• A just wage is obviously not to be computed in
figures; no nominal just wage can be fixed, for
nothing is so variable as the exchange value of
money.