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2 June, 2008
Despite an administrative order in the Philippines requiring a unit of government to render a decision within 60 days once a case has been filed, a year has nearly passed and the Department of Labour and Employment (DOLE) has not taken any action on a collective bargaining deadlock. That deadlock is between the Philippine Cement Workers’ Council (PCWC) and Holcim Philippines Inc.
Members of the ICEM affiliate, and nearly 100 supporters, gathered on 28 May in front of the country’s Labour offices at Intramuros in Manila and picketed the agency. Besides workers belonging to the UBSEU branch of PCWC, which has been denied a resolve to a collective agreement since an Assumption of Jurisdiction application was filed with DOLE on 29 June 2007, nine other PCWC local unions from Cemex and Lafarge plants also attended the picket.
During the protest, the Philippines Acting Labour Department Secretary came out to speak to protestors. He said no clear date for release of an administrative ruling could be given, since the relevant Filipino officials were out of the country attending the annual ILO Labour Conference in Geneva.
Workers at Holcim, a Swiss-based global producer of cement and building materials, at three operations in the Philippines (Bulacan, Rizal, and La Union), have been without a current contract and denied pay increases since last year. Holcim, the second biggest producer of cement in the Asian country, announced late in May a major expansion at these plants, including construction of three new manufacturing plans and 70 new cement mixes in 2008.
Under the archaic Filipino Assumption of Jurisdiction process, management has an incentive to remain fixed on an initial bargaining position by declaring an early impasse. Once an application has been filed, it is the responsibility of the DOLE Secretary to issue an order, taking up the case.
But PCWC contends, the process restricts good-faith social dialogue, and most orders – when issued – tend to fall on the side of the employer in the interest of promoting investment in the Philippines.
ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda sent a message that was read at last week’s PCWC protests, calling DOLE’s failure to rule an “act of administrative conspiracy” that fails “to comply sincerely with ILO Conventions 87 and 98,” the global labour standards on freedom of association and the right of collective bargaining.
PCWC has pledged to hold other concerted actions if the Holcim situation is not rectified.