Collective bargaining and social dialogue
Promoting Collective Bargaining and Social Dialogue at the Enterprise Level
As a continuation of the Consultation-Workshop on Policy Reforms and Collective Bargaining held in the early part of the 2015, the seminar-workshop on Promoting Collective Bargaining and Social Dialogue at the Enterprise level was conducted on 28-30 September 2015 to continuously promote sound and productive labor-management relations at the enterprise level and develop enterprise-based inputs into the labor relations proposals to the Labor Code and roadmap for reform.
Participants from management and union representatives from enterprises which were about to renegotiate their respective collective bargaining agreements (CBAs), while government representatives were from the Department of Labor and Employment and the National Conciliation Mediation Board (NCMB) Regional Offices.
The lectures provided the participants with an overview of ILO Convention Nos. 87 and 98, Philippine Labour System and the concepts, principles, and practice of social dialogue. The participants were also introduced to the concept of interest-based negotiations (IBN) which is a technique for negotiation to identify and discuss issues and attempt to arrive at a mutually accepted solution. The concept and impact of a performance-based pay, which is one of the controversial issues in the Philippines, were also clarified by DOLE.
Before the activity ended, the trade unions and employers planned to jointly develop an education programme to strengthen collective bargaining and social dialogue at the workplace.
As a next step, the Bureau of Labour Relations was keen on integrating this activity into their regular labour education programmes.