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Saturday, August 13, 2005
Power firm changes panel in dialog with employees' union
By Danilo V. Adorador III
A RESOLUTION is underway to break the labor impasse at Cagayan Electric Power and Light Company (Cepalco), the firm's vice president, Edgardo Uy, said Friday.
Uy said the power company's management and the officers of the nearly 200 Cepalco Employees Labor Union (Celu) had resumed talks over the week, with both sides hoping to end the stalemate.
Uy said another team had replaced Cepalco's negotiating panel, though he declined to comment whether this was the factor that led to the dissolution of talks between the electric company and the workers group earlier.
Although no major issues have been resolved this early, Uy said the resumptions of negotiations between two sides "offered avenues for solutions."
"I believe we can resolve this without the (workers) union resulting to mass actions," Uy told Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro.
He said Cepalco is now waiting for Celu's response on the last negotiations. He said the employees' productivity has not been affected with the ongoing silent strike.
Wearing black ribbons, Celu declared a deadlock two weeks ago to the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) negotiations with the power firm. Employees wore black ribbons pinned on their uniforms to signify their protest.
The dispute arose when Cepalco and Celu issued contrasting positions on the percentage of increase in the company's compensation packages.
The employees are seeking among other items a 200 percent increase in their retirement benefits instead of 170 percent.
As counter-offer, the Cepalco management is offering a P1,200 increase in wages for the next three years, a signing bonus of P10,000 and a Christmas cash gift of P1,500 depending on management's discretion.
However, members of Cepalco's union rejected management's offer saying their financial demands only constitute a mere fraction of the annual income generated by the local power utility firm.
This came about even as Mayor Vicente Emano lamented that the power bills levied by Cepalco on the City Government rose from at least P1.2 million to more than P2 million this year.
The mayor likewise denied reports that the City Government asked the power utility firm to allow them to pay half of City Hall's power bills.
(August 13, 2005 issue)
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