- CHERYL G. CRUZ
A check for P30,822,095.95 was turned over to the Ceneco Union of Rational Employees (CURE) by Department of Labor and Employment Region 6 director, Atty. Sixto Rodriguez Jr., at the DOLE Negros Occidental office in Bacolod City this morning, Oct. 13.
It was received by CURE president Stephanie Montaner, who said that the amount will benefit 348 current and retired employees of the Central Negros Electric Cooperative.
Rodriguez told the Negros NOW Daily that he turned over the check since he was already in the city for the Regional Development Council meeting, rather than for the CURE representatives to still go to his office in Iloilo.
He said the amount was deposited by the Ceneco management in a bank, following an order from then DOLE Secretary Silvestre Bello III in May this year for the power cooperative to immediately implement all of the economic provisions in the 2017-2022 Collective Bargaining Agreement with the CURE, as per Case No. OS-AJ-2022-0207-0001.
Rodriguez said the CBA award is the biggest, so far, in Western Visayas under his watch.
The DOLE assumed jurisdiction of the labor dispute between the management of Ceneco and CURE in February this year, following a notice of strike from the union.
The employees were then asking for the release of their CBA signing bonus and wage increase since last year but the management said it cannot release the benefits yet since they are bounded by the guidelines of the National Electrification Administration to attain first a 95-percent collection efficiency.
Its collection efficiency that time was only at 92 percent, then Ceneco OIC general manager, Engr. Jose Taniongon, had said./CGC
