Senators seek amendments to Labor Code

MANILA, Philippines - Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago wants to amend a provision under the Labor Code to give the law “more teeth.”

Under Article 248 of the Labor Code, “to contract out services or functions being performed by union members when such will interfere with, restrain or coerce employees in the exercise of their right to self-organization” is an unfair labor practice.

But Santiago said it is already an unfair labor practice to merely “contract out services or functions being performed by union members.”

“Clearly, the provision does not cover situations where employers merely threaten to contract out services being performed by the latter,” Santiago said in the explanatory note of Senate Bill 1913.

“A threat has the same coercive effect as actually contracting out services as it instills fear in the laborer of losing his job,” read the bill, currently pending at the Senate committee on labor, employment and human resources temporarily chaired by Sen. Juan Edgardo Angara.

Santiago pointed out that Article 248 of the Labor Code should be amended to make it an unfair labor practice for any employer “to promise, to threaten, or to take any other action to hire a permanent replacement or an employee who at the commencement of a labor dispute was an employee of the employer in a bargaining unit which a labor organization was the certified or recognized exclusive bargaining representative.”

“Or at least 30 days prior to the commencement of the dispute had filed a petition for certification election pursuant to Articles 256 and 257 of this Code, and the Bureau of Labor Relations has not completed the representation proceeding,” she added.

Apart from Senate Bill 1913, other bills calling for amendments to the Labor Code – also pending before the Senate labor panel – are SB 367 filed by Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, and SB 152 filed by Sen. Pia Cayetano.

Estrada wants to strengthen the workers’ constitutional right to collective bargaining, allowing for both labor and management to demand multi-unit and multi-employer bargaining.

Estrada proposed to simplify collective bargaining agreements (CBA) and to reinforce the “ability of workers to demand up-to-date financial statements which could serve as reasonable basis for their demands” in order for this to “translate to more responsible unionism.”

The bill also seeks to shorten the term of CBAs to three years, instead of the current five years, in order to “do away with the need to negotiate for the much shorter last two years of an existing CBA.”

Meanwhile, Cayetano wants to make it unlawful for employers to refuse the issuance of employment certification to resigned, dismissed or separated employees.

Cayetano said her free legal advice program was swamped with labor problems, most common of which was the blatant refusal of employers to issue a “certification of employment” to employees who had resigned or were terminated.