Strike notices down this year, labor chief reports

MANILA, Philippines—While a labor strike threatens to break out at Philippine Airlines, the total number of notices of strikes in the country is down by 12 percent, Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz said Saturday.

Baldoz said the labor department would exert more efforts to promote industrial peace by reconstituting the Tripartite Industrial Peace Council (TIPC) to provide for “inclusive representation and participation” of more worker groups in the council.

She said the reconstitution of the TIPC is part of the reforms under the Aquino administration’s labor and employment agenda.

“The agenda seeks the enhancement of tripartite cooperation aimed at ensuring industrial peace which is essential in business and investments growth and the preservation and generation of jobs”, Baldoz said in a statement.

She said National Conciliation and Mediation Board Executive Director Reynaldo Ubaldo reported that 199 notices of strike or lockout cases had been filed this year, which is 12 percent less than the 225 cases filed during the same period last year.

In his report, Ubaldo also said the number of workers involved in these notices declined by seven percent, from 47,090 to 43,936.

He said that with 49 cases pending from last year, notices of strike or lockout cases handled during the period totaled 248.

Of the 199 cases filed since January, 149 involved unfair labor practice issues, while 46 invoked bargaining deadlock. Four cases involved both types of issues, Ubaldo said.

The NCMB report showed that 204 of the 248 notices of strike or lockout handled since January have been disposed of. The 82 percent disposition rate is four percentage points higher than the figure last year.

The board likewise settled 73 percent or 179 cases, seven percentage points higher than the figure last year.

He reported 13 new preventive mediation cases in the first half of September. –Philip Tubeza, Philippine Daily Inquirer