Tuesday, September 23, 2008 Veco union members want ‘just’ profit-sharing scheme
THE Visayan Electric Company Employees Union (Vecu) yesterday accused the management of unfair labor practices by refusing to give their shares of the company profit as provided for in the collective bargaining agreement (CBA).
Vecu president Casmero Mahilum said that the management, which is under the Aboitiz family since 2004, also violated the CBA by converting the rank-and-file positions to “confidential.” This, he added, threatens their security of tenure.
What was worse, Mahilum said, was that they were summoned by Jaime Jose Aboitiz, executive vice president and chief operating officer, last Sept. 15 and threatened to dismiss from service all union officers if their planned “wearing of arm bands” will push through.
Dismissal
“He told me that if the wearing of black arm bands will push through, he will use all his power and influence at Veco so my fellow union officers and I will be dismissed from service,” he said.
Mahilum said the refusal of the Aboitiz-led management to give them their share of the company profits is “strike-able.”
Josephine Lim, spokesperson of Associated Labor Union (ALU) where Veco is affiliated, said the black arm bands will be distributed today; workers will be immediately putting them on to dramatize their protest against the management.
Mahilum said it has been practiced by Veco since 1951 to give a 10-percent share to stockholders and employees.
Under the formula that has been practiced for decades already, of the 10 percent, 60 percent shall go to the stockholders and the 40 percent shall go to the employees.
In short, four percent of the company’s profits go to the employees.
This was also incorporated in the CBA that will expire in 2011 yet, he said.
Vecu has 248 members who are also regular rank-and-file employees.
Dissatisfied
Veco corporate communications manager Ethel Natera, however, said that all the employees were given their shares of the company profit.
“Some were not satisfied with what they received. That is all I can say now,” Natera said in a text message to Sun.Star Cebu.
But Mahilum said they want the management to explain to them how the sharing was computed considering that their shares from 2004 to the present are steadily decreasing.
“We want to know how they computed it and how many of us were given considering that not all of us were given the profit shares,” he said.
If the management will refuse to dialogue with the union, they will be forced to file a complaint with the Department of Labor and Employment. (EOB)
