Labor group disputes claims of high sugarcane labor costs

MANILA, Philippines — The Unyon ng mga Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (UMA) has challenged the Sugar Council’s characterization of sugarcane labor as costly, citing low wages, long working hours without overtime pay and hundreds of thousands of field workers who reportedly did not receive seasonal cash bonuses.

In a statement, UMA chairperson Ariel Casilao said most sugarcane field workers continued to receive wages below the minimum rate, with no overtime pay for work extending beyond eight hours a day. Many also received no employment benefits, while the Cash Bonus Fund (CBF) intended for them was often minimal or not distributed at all, the group said.

Casilao cited a 2024 study by the Department of Labor and Employment’s Institute for Labor Studies (ILS), which he said found that most sugarcane field workers earned less than ₱10,000 a month.

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“When UMA was invited to comment on the said research, the ILS said this was from P2,000-P9,800 a month. The reply of the planter from Negros was that the wages were pricey,” the group said.

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Casilao also raised concerns about dayo, or local migrant sugar workers, in Batangas, where many are reportedly paid only after the harvest season.

Long hours, low earnings

In a March 2026 interview with UMA’s Isabela chapter, the group said workers harvesting and loading sugarcane for GFII, a bioethanol company in San Mariano, were paid under a piece-rate arrangement known as pakyaw.

According to UMA, a team of 12 to 15 workers takes 11 to 12 hours to load 10 tons of sugarcane onto a truck. The workers should receive ₱500 per ton, but a GFII contractor deducts ₱100 per ton, the group said.

“So their average wage is just P333.33 (US$5.20) for 12 hours of work. P500 is the minimum wage for agricultural workers in region 2. According to Ayik, P305.52 is stolen from them for underpayment and non-payment of overtime work,” the group said.

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READ: Planters, labor groups decry low sugar prices

The group also cited a 2018 ILS study, An Analysis of Practices and Policies in the Employment of Migratory Sugarcane Workers (MSWs), which examined the working conditions of migrant sugarcane workers.

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The study discussed how anticipo, or cash advances used in recruiting migrant workers, can leave them heavily reliant on planters and recruiters. UMA said the study also warned that advances and earnings commonly paid only at the end of a contract could create conditions for debt bondage among migrant sugar workers.

Thousands miss out on cash bonuses

UMA also questioned the distribution of the CBF, which sugar workers are supposed to receive at the end of the harvest season.

DOLE figures for the 2024-2025 crop year, as cited by UMA, put the average cash bonus for sugarcane field workers at just ₱213.76. Another 249,301 field workers did not receive the bonus, the group said.

The group noted that the sugar industry’s tiempo muerto, or dead season, can last up to six months a year, leaving workers facing prolonged periods without regular harvesting work.

Despite its criticism of labor conditions, UMA said it supported the Sugar Council’s call to increase the prices of raw sugar and molasses to help farmers, particularly small planters, cover rising production costs.

“We agree with the Sugar Council in increasing the prices of raw sugar and even that of molasses so that farmers, especially the small planters, can earn decently as the prices of fertilizers and fuel have increased the production costs of planting sugarcane. This is brought about by the ongoing tensions between Iran and the US and Israel,” the group said.

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UMA maintained, however, that efforts to improve farmers’ earnings should not come at the expense of sugarcane field workers’ rights and welfare nationwide. /dm