The Bacolod City Water District Employees Union dubbed as illegal, inappropriate, and immoral the action of the Board of Directors to declare the positions of 60 employees redundant.
The BEU issued the statement on Monday after said employees were prohibited from entering the Baciwa premises since they were already considered dismissed by the last working hour of Dec. 31, 2020.
They maintained that the terms of their employment were protected under the Civil Service Commission after refusing to apply for employment with Baciwa’s joint venture agreement partner PrimeWater Infrastructure Inc., which already took over the management and operations in November, or accept the early retirement incentive plan.
“Our supposed redundancy have no basis in fact and in law and relies on the opinion of an agency which, because it was party to what, for all intents, was the surrender of public service to private interests, can hardly be relied on to undertake a sober and unbiased assessment of the situation,” the BEU said.
They added that while they “acknowledge that the Board is the policy-making body, it is our conviction that it does not possess the authority to dictate our terms of employment, which are subject to and protected by the Civil Service”.
The BEU received support from the General Alliance of Workers Associations led by secretary-general Wennie Sancho.
“GAWA condemns in the strongest possible terms the declaration of the Baciwa/Prime Water management on the redundancy of the 60 BEU members,” the group said in a statement.
Sancho said that under the joint venture agreement, it was not clear whether they recognized the BEU as the sole and exclusive employees’ representative of Baciwa.
“These are some of union-busting strategies applied with a semblance of legality. This is a form of labor harassment and oppression. GAWA perceives that the Board of Directors of Baciwa are union-busters,” he added. – MML
