Conciliation efforts avert looming strike

at local power distributor in Leyte

All’s well that ends well.

In less than a month, the National Conciliation and Mediation Board (NCMB) of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) averted a possible work stoppage at a local power distributor in Leyte following a series of conciliation conferences.

In a report to Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz, NCMB Executive Director Reynaldo Ubaldo said the Don Orestes Romualdez Electric Cooperative, Inc. (DORELCO) and the DORELCO Employees Union ALU-TUCP have finally signed their collective bargaining agreement (CBA) after both parties agreed on the contested provisions.

The DORELCO was represented by Atty. Emmanuel Sano, while the union was headed by its president Jesus Bautista.

The CBA signing was made last Thursday, August 19, 2010, after a series of conciliation conferences conducted by Conciliator-Mediator Tomas Biboso and Director Juanito B. Geonzon.

“I immediately instructed our regional director to look into this as soon as we received the Notice of Strike (NoS) and right away made our conciliation efforts because we are talking about more than 100 employees here who would be affected in the event they proceeded with their strike,” Ubaldo said, adding that as a result of the positive development, the Union decided to withdraw the NoS.

DORELCO is a power distributor based in San Roque, Tolosa, Leyte and has a total employment of 108 employees, 76 of whom are union members.

The employees’ union filed its NoS last July 26, 2010 when parties disagreed with the draft CBA, particularly on some terminologies used, among other political and non-economic issues.

“There were attempts to put in corrections in some of the contested provisions but the disagreement persisted until the Union decided to file their NoS,” Ubaldo further said. “But we’re glad that both parties finally came to an agreement.”

During the conciliation conferences, the DORELCO claimed financial losses after suffering a negative cash flow brought by the effects of the financial crisis in 2009.

In the end, the Union agreed to the offer of ten percent (10%) increase to basic salary or any equivalent benefits, at the option of the Union, on the first year; five percent (5%) on the second year; and three percent (3%) on the third year.