Some of the 60 terminated employees of the Bacolod City Water District (BACIWA) mounted a protest outside the office of the utility firm today, January 5.
Leny Espina, president of the BACIWA Employees Union (BEU), said they were joined by cause-oriented groups and consumer advocates in the rally that condemned the “harassment” against the workers.
Since Monday, January 4, the management has barred the sacked employees from entering BACIWA. They can only go to the office to turn over their accountabilities and process their clearances, and not to report for work.
The positions of the 60 workers were declared redundant by the Board of Directors following the joint venture agreement (JVA) between BACIWA and PrimeWater Infrastructure Corp. (PrimeWater) owned by the Villar family.
PrimeWater took over the operations of BACIWA on November 16.
The affected employees were separated from the utility firm effective December 31.
Espina, who had worked with BACIWA for 18 years, said the terminated workers were regular government employees with permanent positions.
Lorendo Dilag, BACIWA board chair, in a press conference today, January 5, said the terms were explained to the employees.
He stressed that no government employees will be removed from office unless there is a valid reason, citing that their positions were declared redundant by the board.
UNION-BUSTING?
Local labor group General Alliance of Workers Association (GAWA) condemned in the strongest possible terms the declaration of the management on the redundancy of the 60 BEU members.
“When this so-called joint venture agreement between BACIWA and PrimeWater was signed, it was not clear whether they recognized BEU as the sole and exclusive employees’ representative of BACIWA,” Wennie Sancho, GAWA secretary-general, said today, January 5.
He asked: “Was the joint venture merely a ploy to convince the workers that their union is still the seer of BACIWA as certified in their Collective Negotiation Agreement (CNA)? Only to be followed by redundancy?”
Sancho opined that these are “some of the union-busting strategies applied,” adding that “it is pure and simple harassment.”
Public sector unions are covered by the Labor Code and laws, he stressed, adding that their security of tenure should be protected by the state.
“We firmly believed that the workers are more important than profit and capital,” he said.
As mandated by the Labor Code, the “dismissal of a duly elected union officer is tantamount to union-busting and the union can go on strike immediately, without observing the 15-days cooling-off period. To prevent the union members from entering the workplace constitute a ‘lock-out’ which is anti-labor and against the law,” he said.
He said that GAWA perceives BACIWA and its board as “union-busters.”*