NEWS RELEASE

National Conciliation and Mediation Board

07 December 2010

Refer to Director Jay T. Julian

Tel. Nos. (02) 415-7888 / 0917-8821170

NCMB mulls over introducing CSR

in labor dispute prevention program

The National Conciliation and Mediation Board (NCMB) plans to include modules on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in its Labor-Management Cooperation (LMC) program, a mechanism aimed at preventing labor dispute at the plant level.

NCMB Executive Director Reynaldo R. Ubaldo said the concept of introducing the CSR was triggered by most of the success stories of companies which underwent the Board’s LMC program.

“We were inspired by how these companies were able to establish a sound business environment,” Ubaldo said. “While we are facilitating the establishment of an LMC structure to build a stronger partnership between the management and its workers, we are also learning from their experiences, and one of these is their CSR program.”

In the course of implementing the LMC program, the NCMB noted that CSR could also be a good instrument to further the objective of maintaining industrial peace and harmony at the same time helping the community.

Most of the companies that have existing CSR programs are reaching out to the community where they are situated. Some of them are providing gainful employment, trainings, and other services for free. Some companies, in return, have also benefited with the increase in their productivity.

“Workers of companies with a CSR program have easily accepted the concept because their family and their own community are the ones benefiting from this program,” Ubaldo said, “and it helped a lot in establishing a good partnership between the management and its workers.”

The NCMB has been implementing its LMC program since 1988 to promote workers’ participation in decision-making processes and create labor relations climate conducive to productivity improvement, in the process, improving the quality of working life and achieve and sustain economic growth.

The program usually covers the sharing of information, discussions, consultations and negotiations on matters outside the collective bargaining agreement. It may also cover areas of management decisions like personnel policies, productions plans, business expansion programs, productivity improvement program, among others.

“LMC actually encompasses many issues on labor relations and we see the possibility of including the CSR to further expand this program,” Ubaldo said.

CSR is sometimes called corporate conscience, citizenship, or social performance. It is designed to embrace responsibility to encourage impact through its activities on the environment, consumers, employees, communities, stakeholders and all other members of the public sphere.

Recently, the NCMB conducted an orientation on CSR for its middle managers facilitated by the Energy Development Corporation (EDC), a company which the NCMB helped established an LMC mechanism.

The EDC, winner of the 2009 Most Outstanding LMC Award, shared some information on their CSR which the NCMB could replicate and include in the LMC program.

“We also want other companies adopt a similar program that does not only help strengthen industrial peace but at the same time reaching out to the less fortunate,” Ubaldo said. “And we believe that could also bolster our efforts in establishing LMC in many industries.”

END

/jtj