Industrial relations front peaceful, stable–DOLE
MANILA – Determined to prevent the escalation of labor disputes into work stoppages or strikes, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) said it would exert more efforts to work with the private and labor sectors to strengthen tripartite cooperation and promote industrial peace.
Labor and Employment Secretary Rosalinda Dimapilis-Baldoz said the Tripartite Industrial Peace Council (TIPC) will be reconstituted to provide for inclusive representation and participation of more worker groups in the council.
Baldoz said the reconstitution of the TIPC is part of the reforms being initiated by the DOLE in line with its pursuit of President Benigno Simeon Aquino III’s labor and employment agenda.
“The agenda seek the enhancement of tripartite cooperation aimed at ensuring industrial peace which is essential in business and investments growth and the preservation and generation of jobs,” Baldoz said.
Towards this end, she said the National Conciliation and Mediation Board (NCMB) settles notices of strike/lockout before they erupt into actual strikes.
NCMB Executive Director Reynaldo Ubaldo, in his report to Secretary Baldoz, said 199 notices of strike/lockout cases were filed this year, 12 percent fewer than the 225 cases filed during the same period last year. Workers involved in these notices also declined by seven percent, from 47,090 to 43,936.
Ubaldo said that with 49 cases pending from last year, notice of strike/lockout cases handled during the period totaled 248, adding that of the 199 cases received since January, 149 raised unfair labor practice (ULP) issues while 46 invoked bargaining deadlock (BD). Four cases raised both ULP and BD issues.
The NCMB report showed that 204 of the 248 notices of strike/lockout handled since January have been disposed for an 82 percent disposition rate, four percentage points higher than the figure last year. The board likewise settled 73 percent or 179 cases, seven percentage points higher than the figure last year.
Cumulative collective bargaining agreement economic benefits resulting from settlement of BD cases totaled P894 million, benefiting 5,254 workers. Separation and restitution packages amounting to P11 million also benefited 1,653 workers.
It took the NCMB an average of 53 days to settle a strike/lockout notice during the reporting period, adding that as of Sept. 15, 2010, 44 notices of strike/lockout remain the subject of ongoing conciliation-mediation.
The NCMB also docketed 13 new preventive mediation cases during the first two weeks of September 2010, bringing to 294 the number of cases filed since January 2010, 16 percent fewer than the 352 cases filed during the same period last year.
Workers involved in these preventive mediation cases were five percent fewer, or from 94,290 last year to 89,539 this year.*
