Fewer collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) were forged last year, but the number of registered labor unions was higher in 2018, according to the latest data released by the government.
In its Labor Relations Overview Report, the Bureau of Labor Relations (BLR) said the number of registered unions rose by 1 percent last year to 17,562 unions from 17,424 in 2017.
Labor Assistant Secretary Benjo M. Benavidez attributed this to the reforms implemented recently by the BLR, such as the online union registration. The BLR is an attached agency of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).
“The upward trend is the number of registered unions will continue as it is so easy to organize a union and have it registered,” the former BLR director told the BusinessMirror via SMS.
However, Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) Spokesman Alan Tanjusay said the hike in the number of registered labor unions is due to the government’s drive against illegal contractualization.
“We attribute the increase in registered unions to the regularization order of [President] Duterte [and] his directive to companies to hire employees directly,” said Tanjusay.
The order to regularize employees, according to Federation of Free Workers (FFW) Vice President Julius Cainglet, “emboldened” more workers and triggered a “renaissance” of organized labor.
Lower CBA coverage
However, the increase in the number of registered unions did not translate to more registered CBAs. In fact, registered CBAs last year fell to 995, from 1,159 recorded in 2017.
BLR defines CBA as the contract, which is the result of “the process of negotiations between employers and a group of employees aimed at reaching agreements that regulate working conditions.”
A similar trend was also observed in the 2017/2018 round of the Integrated Survey on Labor and Employment of the Philippine Statistics Authority, which covered firms with 20 or more workers. The PSA conducts the ISLE every two years.
“CBA coverage rate [proportion of employees covered by CBAs to total paid employees] was at 7.1 percent, or around 362,000 of the 5.060 million total paid employees were covered by CBAs in 2018. A minimal decrease of 0.1 percentage point from the 7.2 percent CBA coverage rate posted in 2016,” the PSA said.
Tanjusay said this may be explained by the usual cycle of CBA renegotiations, which usually happen every three to five years.
However, Cainglet said the decline in CBA coverage could be attributed to the refusal of employers to recognize legitimate labor unions and the government’s weak enforcement of union regulations.
“They [employers] simply refuse to negotiate and don’t recognize trade unions, and their employee’s right to organize and bargain collectively,” he said.
“These are contrary to law as their acts constitute refusal to bargain. The DOLE is supposed to come in and make them sit at the negotiating table, but they have not. Thus it becomes symptomatic of the problem of weak enforcement,” he added.
Image credits: Nonie Reyes