PR - Maybank Employees Gear for Strike

20 October 2013

PRESS RELEASE 

Contact person: 

REGINALD RICOHERMOSO 

09278615220

Maybank Employees Gear for Strike

The three-hundred and sixty-nine strong national employees union of Maybank may be forced to go on strike in the following days if the bank’s management refuses to heed the demands of the labor union. Maybank, an international bank with a main office based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia has sixty-five branches nationwide. The union complains that bank management has refused to implement a provision on performance bonuses stipulated in their collective bargaining agreement. 

According to Regie Ricohermoso, union president of Maybank Employees Union, “The continued non-implementation of the performance bonus provision is a direct violation of the collective bargaining agreement on the part of the management”. 

The union filed a Notice of strike last June 3 before the National Conciliation and Mediation Board (NCMB) of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), but representatives of bank President Ferminio M. Famatigan Jr. refused to budge in all the conciliation meetings facilitated by the NCMB.

The union leader likewise added that, “The management’s blind refusal is forcing us to take drastic steps for them to realize that we are serious with our demands”. 

Ricohermoso also complained that instead of heeding union demands to preserve industrial peace in the financial institution, the union has been suffering continued harassment. “Even our employees’ cooperative is subject to their aggravation, Mr. Famatigan’s minions have also taken away our right to use bank facilities for our activities, also a violation of the collective bargaining agreement,” he said. 

In compliance with the Labor Code, the union shall be holding their nationwide strike vote on October 22 at October 23. The strike vote shall be facilitated by representatives of the DOLE despite of the pronouncement made by bank officials that shall not cooperate in holding a peaceful strike referendum. 

In solidarity with the embattled Maybank employees, Gie Relova, Secretary-General of the militant Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino - National Capital Region-Rizal chapter (BMP-NCRR) said that, “The outright non-compliance of a public contract by Maybank execs shows only how little respect the bank management has for those who dedicated their lives and sacrificed so much to make Maybank what it is today”. 

The BMP leader says that it shall muster and mobilize its affiliates in support to the union until management heed the workers’ demands.###

PR - Online petition vs. SSS execs gains ground

Press Release

12 October 2013

Contact person:

Gie Relova, Sec. Gen. BMP-NCRR

0915-2862555

Online petition vs. SSS execs gains ground

“Our salaries are already below the family living wage which the Constitution mandates and yet you fatten yourselves on the starvation wages we live on,” stated an online petition urging Social Security System (SSS) execs to return the performance-based bonuses amounting to more than P10 million.

The petition has gained steam after only three days that it was posted at the petition site change.org.

The petition signed by more than 400 signatories was initiated by Gie Relova of the labor group Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP) which picketed the SSS office at Quezon City last week.

The petition addressed to embattled SSS President and Chief Executive Officer Emilio de Quiros further demanded that the bonuses once returned by the board members, must be used to fund increased benefits and also to discontinue the recently Palace-approved .6% increase in employees' contributions.

“The callousness of SSS officials is an abomination that deserves labor’s outright indignation. Workers haven’t gotten over their lobbying for the approval of the additional .6% burden and now their squandering what rightfully belongs to us,” Relova said.

Most of the responses by the netizens expressed disgust at SSS officials for what they branded as “shameful” and an “injustice”, were among the more refined comments. Others petition signatories went out in to calling the bonus recipients as “kapal mukha” and “pigs”, obviously referring to the pork barrel scandal which has hounded both the Legislative and Executive branches.

There were also sensible commentaries such as that of a certain Anna Kapunan who said that, “The bonus maybe legal but it is immoral to bask in bonuses that came from the hard work of the constituents who cannot even enjoy their benefits”.

“Those in GOCCs should be made to understand that they are no longer insulated. They no longer operate in a vacuum where their discretion is absolute. Government service should go back to its original intent - service,” said a certain Samantha Poblacion of Quezon City.

Among the petition’s signatories were former beauty queen Aurora Pijuan, veteran journalist Alfonso Pedroche and environmentalist Aileen Lucero.

When asked what will be the group’s next move if SSS officials refuse to give in to the demands, Relova explained that, “The online petition will most likely not be enough because as we all know, De Quiros and company have thick faces. The BMP will take the battle against this injustice to the streets”.### 

PR - Workers dub SSS bonus and per diem “Million Peso Pork”

PRESS RELEASE

Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP)

October 8, 2013

Workers dub SSS bonus and per diem “Million Peso Pork”

Militant labor under Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP), accompanied by labor-led political party Partido Lakas ng Masa (PLM) slammed current commissioners of the Social Security System (SSS) board for the P10 million bonus issued to them last year, and in addition, the P276 million bonus to its employees.

In a picket before the SSS main office in Quezon City today, the workers named the more than P40,000 per diem of the directors as “Million Peso Pork” comparative to the current pork barrel controversy.

“This is a disgrace to the Filipino workers whose only hope for retirement relief is the miniscule benefit from SSS, the premium of which increased by 0.6 per cent just last month,” said BMP national president Leody de Guzman.

“With the huge per diem of our board of directors, we, as SSS members, seem to have been forced to feed these pigs with our lowly salaries,” he added.

BMP’s action came after news reports bared the multimillion bonuses, which amounted to more than P1 million per commissioner. De Guzman also cited the 2012 Commission on Audit (COA) Report on Salaries and Allowances, wherein SSS president and chief executive officer was reported to have received P4.35 million in salaries and allowances last year.

With the slogan “Million-Peso Kickback sa SSS, Ibalik sa mga manggagawa!” BMP called for the accountability of SSS board members, urging them to return the P10 million to the SSS fund and increase the benefits of members.

The groups also reminded SSS that the refund of the P788 million overcharged interest as reflected in the 2011 COA report has not taken place.

It can be remembered that COA chided SSS for using a wrong computation of loan interest based on the principal loan amount instead of diminishing monthly loan balance, as prescribed by the Central bank. COA recommended SSS to stop the use of said computation, which SSS admittedly has been practicing in 2001, and refund the overcharged amount to its members.

After the picket, members of both organizations ate tuyo (dried fish) for lunch, signifying the worsening poverty amongst Filipino workers while their supposed servants, as represented by the SSS board, are wallowing on huge perks.