DoLE chief commends banking industry

Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz commended the banking industry after it adopted a Voluntary Code of Good Practice, a first for the banking sector and the 23rd such code adopted by the country’s various industries under the administration of President Aquino.

Witnessing the signing of the Banking Industry Tripartite Council (BITC) Resolution No. 1, Series of 2011, embodying the Code in a formal ceremony at the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas last week, Baldoz said the banking industry’s stakeholders—banker-employers, bank workers, and the banking public stand to benefit from the Voluntary Code of Good Practices.

The Code is entitled, “Adopting the Banking Industry Voluntary Code of Good Practice on Dispute Settlement and Outsourcing/Subcontracting of Certain Bank Functions.”

“This is, indeed, another forward step in the DOLE-initiated reforms in labor arbitration and adjudication system and in strengthening tripartism and social dialogue,” Baldoz said.

In her brief remarks at the signing ceremony, Baldoz encouraged other industries to follow the banking sector’s lead and take the country’s best interests to heart, saying the initiative of the tripartite partners would set a model toward a culture of voluntary compliance and self-regulation among industries in the Philippines.

The banking industry’s tripartite partners belonging to the BITC — workers, management, and government — were in full force at the signing of the Code.

Secretary Baldoz and Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Armando Tetangco joined Bankers Association of the Philippines president Aurelio Montinola III, Chamber of Thrift Banks president Patrick Cheng, Rural Bankers Association of the Philippines president Ian Eric S. Pama, National Union of Bank Employees president Jose Umali, and Federation of Free Workers national president Jose Sonny Matula at the signing.

Other signatories to the resolution are Felimon Tercero, president of the National Association of Trade Unions; Gerard Seno, national vice president of the Associated Labor Unions; BSP Deputy Governor Nestor Espenilla Jr., and Hans Leo Cacdac, DoLE Undersecretary and head of the Labor Relations Cluster.

BITC Resolution No. 1 affirms the support of the country’s biggest associations and unions in the banking sector, namely, the BAP that represents about two dozen universal and international banks; the RBAP, with over 500-member rural banks; the Chamber of Thrift Banks, the umbrella organization of more than 70 thrift banks nationwide; and the NUBE, the oldest and biggest banking union in the country, to the initiative of the National Tripartite Industrial Peace Council to develop responsible and mature engagement of the social partners through industry self-regulation.

The Code contains two salient features. These are the provisions on dispute settlement and outsourcing/subcontracting of certain bank functions.

On the first, the Code provides that banking unions or any employees’ organization in the sector and bank management agree to resolve any issues arising from the interpretation or implementation of collective bargaining agreements and those arising from interpretation or enforcement of company personal policies through the grievance machinery, or pursuant to Department Order No. 40, Series of 2003, as amended.

“All unresolved grievance or issues shall be submitted to voluntary arbitration,” the Code provides. PNA