AFPSLAI workers may go on strike due to CBA deadlock

MANILA, Philippines - Employees of the largest savings and loan agency for military and police personnel have threatened to stage a strike due to a deadlock in the collective bargaining agreement (CBA), an official said.

Lani Leonida, president of the Armed Forces and Police Savings and Loan Association Inc. (AFPSLAI) Employees Organization, said in a statement that the strike would push through if the Department of Labor-National Conciliation and Mediation Board (DOLE-NCMB) fails to make the labor union and management reach an agreement over wage and other issues.

She said they are planning to hold the strike starting Nov. 13 when efforts to resolve the issues fail.

Leonida said the union demands increases of P1,600, P1,700 and P1,900 for the first three-year term of the CBA, but the AFPSLAI’s final counter-offer was only P900, P950 and P1,000, which included a provision for the union to drop all its unresolved demands.

“The management can very well afford to give our unresolved economic demands amounting to P84.1 million for the next three years because AFPSLAI is very profitable and is the number one non-stock corporation in the country,” she said.

Leonida said that for the first six months of the year, AFPSLAI earned a net income of P1.9 billion, which is almost equal to the projected income of P2.5 billion for the whole year.

She added that AFPSLAI was spared from spending P101 million for the now-defunct Centennial Bank, giving it enough funds for the union’s demand.

“The savings could have been used in giving higher dividends to its investors and better benefits to the employees,” she said.

Aside from this, the union wants to know the functions of different positions that were part of the reorganization program for them to know who is included in the scope of the union’s bargaining unit.

“But the management did not accede to this demand,” she said.