DOLE: Employers’ Main Partner in Government

 

 

            “May I take this opportunity to congratulate you (DOLE Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas) and the employers and the laborers because now we have the lowest number of strikes in Philippine history. Congratulations!”, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo declared in the 27^th National Conference of Employers, conducted by the Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP) at the Centennial Ballroom, Manila Hotel, on 23 May 2006.

 

            President Arroyo congratulated DOLE Secretary Patricia A. Sto. Tomas, employers, and workers for the lowest number of strikes recorded in history. She then cited the resilience of the Philippine economy, mirrored by the double digit increase in foreign portfolio investment over the previous month, the reduction of the budget deficit, and the construction of infrastructures, on top of the low strike count.

 

            PGMA also affirmed employers as lead players responsible for the generation of employment and economic stability, with government through the DOLE as main partner. She then proposed an agreement between ECOP and DOLE and local government units to settle labor disputes at plant level before cases are filed. In this manner, it will help minimize the case dockets and lessen the hardening of labor-management conflicts. “We are also pushing conciliation and mediation as an alternative to arbitration”, PGMA said. “Our goal is to have zero reason to have strikes by the end of my term in 2010”, she added.

 

            “Let’s stay together. Let’s dream together… let’s be among the countries of the first world in 20 years”, PGMA concluded.