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Saturday, September 25, 2004
Bank workers push for wage hike, poise strike
CEBU CITY -- Majority of the employees of the Philippine National Bank (PNB) voted Friday in favor of launching a strike that would cripple the operations of their 10 branches sometime next week.
However, they will not announce the date of the strike for fear of intervention by Labor Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas.
According to a Balitang Bisdak report, employees held a noise barrage during lunch break and had a strike vote in the bank's different branches Friday.
Over 3,000 members of PNB's Employees' Association nationwide are seeking salary increases of P6,000 for next year and P2,000 for the succeeding two years under a collective bargaining agreement.
However, the management of the bank, which is partly owned by the Lucio Tan Group of companies, only agreed to a P578 increase in a meeting with the National Conciliation and Mediation Board.
With the failure of negotiations, the employees' union filed a notice of strike.
Just two weeks ago, Sto. Tomas issued an order to assume jurisdiction over the labor disputes between the management and employees of the Bank of Philippine Islands nationwide to avoid any work stoppage that would harm the economy.
The order directed all parties to "maintain a status quo and to cease and desist from committing any or all acts that might exacerbate the situation."
PNB, one of the country's oldest banks, already has about 2.8 million clients as of September last year.
One of its key strengths is its dominance in the overseas Filipino worker remittance market, in which it has an estimated 33 percent share.(CYR)
(September 25, 2004 issue)
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