Thursday, September 13, 2007 Dole 11 tasks NCMB to settle PLDT row By Carlo P. Mallo
DEPARTMENT of Labor and Employment (Dole)-Southern Mindanao Director Ponciano Ligutom has tasked the National Conciliation and Mediation Board (NCMB) to look into the trouble between the management and employees of the Philippine long Distance and Telephone Company (PLDT).
PLDT employees had cried foul over the impending retrenchment of 575 workers nationwide starting September 16.
The employees accused the PLDT management of trying to bust their union by transferring key union officials.
The employees lament the fact that despite the declaration of a net profit of P17.5 billion for the first half of 2007, PLDT issued termination slips to its employees.
According to Iron Ramirez, Mindanao sector head of the PLDT Workers Union or the Manggagawa ng Komunikasyon sa Pilipinas (MKP), this action of the management was a violation of the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) signed between MKP and PLDT that seeks to protect union members.
In 2002, a massive lay-off of more than 500 workers was pronounced illegal by the Supreme Court, which ordered PLDT to reinstate the retrenched workers.
In Mindanao, he said there are 29 rank and file employees who are facing termination. Ramirez said this does not include those who are being relocated without notice again in an apparent move to weaken the union.
