• CHERYL G. CRUZ
An official of the Ceneco Union of Rational Employees (Cure) said March 7 that they have filed a notice of strike before the National Conciliation and Mediation Board (NCMB) on job security and the joint venture agreement, and a conference is set today, March 8.
Felix Gepilga Jr., who said that he was voted Cure president March 2 in an election supervised by the Department of Labor and Employment, said he hopes that the management of the Central Negros Electric Cooperative will attend the conference at NCMB and face the unionized employees.
“We expect the Ceneco management na maatubang sa amon for a negotiation. If there is no result, we will notify the NCMB that we will go on with the strike vote,” Gepilga said in a press conference Thursday, adding that Cure will comply with the rules and regulations on labor strike.
Cure, with about 323 members, most of them rank and file, is asking the Ceneco management to honor the security of tenure and other non-economic benefits’ provisions in their Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), in the implementation of the JVA with Primelectric Holdings Inc./Negros Electric Power Corporation.
Gepilga said that under the CBA, “the employees are secured regardless of whoever will be the owner of Ceneco in the future”.
He claimed that Ceneco management entered into a JVA with Primelectric/NEPC “without respecting the non-economic provisions” in the CBA, which includes job security.
He questioned a provision in the JVA on the “prioritized rehiring” of Ceneco employees, claiming this is to coverup the non-compliance with the security of tenure condition in the CBA.
“Rehiring is not security of tenure, mabalik ka as casual, you’re not sure of your job security,” Gepilga explained.
Earlier reports said more than 250 employees of Ceneco have already submitted their applications to the NEPC or Negros Power, which is the joint venture company that will soon establish and maintain a power distribution system in central Negros.
They are now in the process of being hired, Negros Power president Roel Castro had said.
But in the March 5 hearing for the franchise application of Negros Power, Senator Grace Poe, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Public Services, said the current Ceneco employees should not just be absorbed automatically.
Poe said that while there are Ceneco employees who excelled in their jobs and deserve to be absorbed, there are also lazy ones. “It will be unfair to the joint venture company if they hire (the Ceneco employees) automatically.”
Gepilga did not categorically deny that some Cure members did apply with Negros Power, but claimed that Ceneco failed to explain to them that there should be job security, as per the CBA, regardless of who will own Ceneco later. | CGC
