Labor and employers hold confab, pledge industrial peace

BACOLOD CITY, March 4 (PIA) — A peaceful environmental ensures progress and understanding. Labor and industry leaders in Negros vowed to unite and maintain industrial peace in the province during the conference of the Tripartite Industrial Peace Council (TIPC) held recently.

This was made during the TIPC meeting presided by the newly installed Director of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) regional office in Western Visayas, Ponciano M. Ligutom.

Labor, management, and government representatives reaffirmed their commitment to cooperate in maintaining industrial peace as a requirement in achieving a stable economy in the province.

Ligutom said he recognizes the urgent need to unify all sectors to attain industrial harmony and development in Negros amidst intensifying restiveness in the economy of Negros.

The TIPC was organized during the administration of President Corazon Aquino through Executive Order No. 403 and was further developed in the succeeding administrations.

Participants to the conference included employers and management representatives from the Metro Bacolod Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MBCCI), Bacolod Filipino Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry Inc. (BFCCCII), Southern Negros Chamber Inc. Bacolod; Confederation of Sugarcane Producers (CONFED), National Federation of Sugarcane Planters (NFSP), Philippine Association of Detective and Protective Agency Operators, Inc. (PADPAO), and Philippine Constructors Association – Negros (PCAN).

Labor organizations were represented by the National Congress of Unions in the Sugar Industry of the Philippines (NACUSIP), Democratic Alliance of Labor Organizations (DALO), Commercial Agricultural and Industrial Labor Organization (CAILO), National Federation of of Labor Unions (NAFLU), National Federation of Sugar Workers (NFSW), Alliance of Labor for Reform Movement (ALARM).

Government officials of various agencies such as Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board (RTWPB), and Bacolod City Government also participated in the conference.

Both labor and management raised issues such as call for wage hike, and contractualization of workers that have been affecting labor-management relations, and employment situation.

“These are issues that create communication gap between them and the need to be addressed by the TIPC by giving them a venue for mutual understanding,” Ligutom added.

Ligutom said that only a cohesive and a strengthened tripartism can overcome the unending problems brought about by our struggling economy.*(EAD-PIA6/DOLE Negros Occidental)