Broker Peace, Erap Tells Dole

Today

Monday, September 21, 1998

PRESIDENT Estrada has ordered the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to broker peace pacts between labor and management to stave off layoffs throughout the regional crisis.

Malacañang said in a statement that upon the President's orders, the DOLE has begun working with labor unions and the Employment Confederation of the Philippines in crafting various labor agreements intended to promote better labor-management relations and deter any rise in the unemployment rate.

Trade Secretary Jose Pardo, who co-chairs the Economic Mobilization Group (EMG) with Executive Secretary Ronaldo Zamora that recommended the move to Estrada last week, said "industrial peace pacts" will be implemented on a company level.

Estrada created the EMG to produce measures that would cushion the impact of the Asian currency crisis.

Pardo said it is important for the government to create an atmosphere of industrial peace in the country, especially at this time when foreign investors are closely monitoring the state of crisis-battered economies in this pan of the world.

The EMG submitted measures to Estrada, who immediately approved the proposals, among them, the abolition of duty-free privileges for nonresidents in Clark Field and Subic Bay Free Port, effective January.

Pardo said the decision to finally abolish the duty-privileges for nonresidents at the former US bases was prompted by the clamor of retailers, who viewed the privilege as unfair competition.

Among the other EMG proposals were the completion of the Bureau of Customs computerizations program in 13 ports this year and in seven others by 1999, and the use of honorary trade and investment representatives based overseas to promote trade and investment prospects in the country.

Meanwhile, despite high-profile labor unrest such as the ones that led to the closure of Philippine Airlines and the halting of the seaweed plant operations of the carrageenan company, Shemberg, in Cebu, the labor department said it expects fewer labor strikes nest year.

The Department of Labor's National Conciliation and Mediation Board (NCMB) predicted that work stoppages due to labor disputes would be fewer than 100 in 1999, which it said was enough assurance of industrial peace in a time of economic turmoil.

Appearing before the House Committee on Appropriations over the weekend, NCMB Executive Director Buenaventura Magsalin said the predicted number of labor disputes that would be handled by the board is expected to be resolved early. As he noted that labor unions and management officials "are now more open to compromises."

He noted that since the new administration took over, labor strikes have become fewer, a situation that he said may be partly due to President Estrada's appeal to the working masses.

The NCMB expects to handle some 1,800 labor disputes, of which only 1,000 may result in notices of strikes or lockouts.

"No more than 10 percent or 100 cases will end up as actual work stoppage," Buenaventura said.

NCMB documents show that, on the average, the board receives some 1,959 cases yearly. But in the last four years, the cases ending up in strikes have become fewer.

Before 1992, about 10 percent of the 2,143 average yearly cases erupted into actual strikes. Since 1994 cases of work stoppage have been fewer than 100, with only 89 strikes in 1996. In the first 50 days of the new administration, only nine strikes were staged.

M. Gonzales and K. Baylosis