Is GCG The Ultimate Union Busting Tool of the Government? (Part 2)

This is part 2. If you want to read Part One please do so here.

Second point – THE ACSP CBA AND THE GCG OPINION

Another brief history…

Our supervisors have this union called Association of Concerned Supervisory Personnel (ACSP) and the CDC management went into a Collective Bargaining Agreement sometimes in 2011. They thought that it was all well but then here comes E.O. 7 and R.A. 10149 which virtually put what has been agreed on their CBA into an indefinite hold. And yes, as of this writing nothing on the bargain came out of the tunnel.

In the long run ACSP went into arbitration with an AVA (Accredited Voluntary Arbitrator.. and so we stood... Still stood still, we all stood still.

 The rank and file union, Association of Concerned CDC Employees (ACCES), to which I belong also still stood still, because what’s happening with the ACSP will also surely happen to us.

So.

Management is in the position that their hands are tied behind their back because of the opinion of the Governance Commission for GOCC, take note of the word OPINION. GCG is in the opinion that due to those mentioned E.O. and R.A. as well as these E.O. 811, E.O. 900 and R.A. 7875 all negotiations, bargains and the process of arbitration should stop. Please open all this links right now, we’ll do some experiment later.

GCG says on their letter to our then president, Eduardo S.L. Oban “CBA’s between employees and GOCC employers may no longer be NEGOTIATED. Being no longer a subject for negotiation, such CBAs are furthermore taken out of the jurisdiction of Arbitration Proceedings and hence effectively no longer a proper subject in such proceedings.”

Here’s some juicy stuff from that letter

“…nor are their Governing Boards authorized to enter into collective bargaining negotiations or be bound to arbitration proceedings…”

The whole ending paragraph says:

“Based on the foregoing, any agreement derived from the Arbitration Conference is in no way binding to either party. A CBA between employees and a GOCC employer is no longer a proper subject of arbitration. Any and all agreements, especially those concerning increases in rates of salaries, allowances, incentives and other benefits will still be subject to the moratorium as prescribed by E.O. 7, s. 2010. All increases shall require the approval of the President of the Philippines. Furtheremore, assuming that such increases in the CBA is approved by the President, such CBA shall still be subject to changes and modifications so as to comply to the CPCS that GCG will subsequently promulgating and adopting.”

I don’t know no nuts nor bolts nor tender eggs about law nor R.A. nor E.O. but I’d looked all those mentioned EOs and RAs above and just did an explicit search on these FOUR keywords 1. Collective 2. Bargaining 3. Agreement 4. CBA, and I don’t even get a single hit. Did you? (the experiment end). So there’s that…

None of them explicitly mentions CBA. If it isn’t there CBA between ACSP and CDC Management should not be affected, right? Please do enlighten me if I’m wrong, Anyways, about implicit reference to CBA, is there anything there that implies that the CBA is against the law? I don’t see that too.

The opinion of GCG may hold water in the narrowest of senses, but then we have the Philippine Constitution and the Philippine Labor Code which guarantee the workers rights.

Abangan mo Mang Joey ang Part 3.