NCMB CONCILIATORS, ECOP AND UNION OFFICERS

TRAIN ON CONCILIATION/MEDIATION THE ILO WAY

Tagaytay City—NCMB Senior Officals and the Corps of Conciliator-Mediators (or conmeds) of the DOLE completed the four-day “Training Course on Conciliation/Mediation of Labour Disputes” conducted by the ILO International Training Center (ITC) on August 13.-16, 2007. Aside from the 25 conmeds, NCMB officials, 3 representatives of ECOP, and 2 FFW and TUCP officers attended the training at the PHINMA Training Centre, this city.

Mr. Silvain Baffi of the ITC based in Turin, Italy, acted as the facilitator while Mr. John Brand, a conciliator from South Africa was the main resource speaker. The training which was conducted in line with the ILO’s thrust to further advocate social dialogue and workers’ rights covered by ILO conventions and recommendations.

Social dialogue is central to the ILO’s Decent Work agenda.

The training is the third in a series sponsored by the ILO Sub-regional Office for South East Asia and the Pacific. The NLRC Labor Arbiters completed the same course under Mr. Brand, himself a conciliator and facilitator of labor disputes in his country, South Africa. Mr. Brand worked with a multi-national team to develop the ILO Training Course for ITC, and had conducted the course in many countries.

Mr. Brand started every training day with the course objective which is to equip the trainees with the ILO model of the dynamics of conflict, the different approaches to conflict management, the range of dispute resolution processes, the conciliation/mediation process, the essential skills and behaviors of conciliator/mediators, the different approaches to conflict management, and, best negotiation practice.

The ILO training required the conmeds and the other participants to role play either as management or worker involved in disputes regarding wage and dismissal. They were likewise to demonstrate their specific skills in conciliation/mediation to achieve optimum outcomes, such as distinguishing needs from positions, consensus building, (3) effective listening, dealing with anger, probing, influencing others, face saving, and brainstorming. –Ema Aguirre