by Atty. Sonny Matula, President Federation of Free Workers (FFW)

MANILA, Philippines — “Takeda workers are on the fifth day of their strike as management continues to make their lives difficult,” Atty. Sonny Matula, president of the Federation of Free Workers (FFW), said.

Takeda Workers’ Union-FFW five days strike are due to the unfair labor (ULP) acts by the management and the deadlock in their collective bargaining negotiation (CBA).

Two years ago, the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC) discovered that the Takeda management committed the ULP for non-recognition of a certified bargaining agent, which was the incumbent union (Takeda Workers Union-FFW).

“With impunity, they again committed ULP by discriminating the union members from the newly hired employees and newly integrated ones from Nycomed. They are proposing to grant only 3% merit increase to the existing members of the union while giving 11% to the newly hired,” Matula explained.

“Using the divide-and-rule tactic, management refuses to recognize the 60 new employees as members of the union and part of the bargaining unit, despite the collective bargaining agreement provision that says so. Then management gives the new hires a higher increase to dissuade them against joining the union,” Matula added.

These new employees are medical representatives and performing the same jobs and functions as the old employees who are union members.

“Where is the rule of law in this case? The Constitution recognizes the right of workers to form unions (Art III, Sec 8. Article 248 of the Labor Code prohibits discrimination against union members. It also proscribes (prohibit) management’s interference in union membership and all of its affairs,” Matula said.

The closed shop provision of the CBA is the law between the union and the management. A closed shop is a form of union security agreement under which the employer agrees to hire union members only, and employees must remain members of the union at all times in order to remain employed. The closed shop is the highest union security clause.

“Despite huge profits in the past years, management did not negotiate a CBA with the bargaining agent of the workers. The management was found to have committed ULP. The decision is now final and executory,” Matula stated.

“After Takeda was found guilty of ULP, now it only offers a minuscule amount of wage increase which led to a deadlock in CBA negotiation. It offered P500/month wage increase against the union’s proposal of P2,500, which is within the range of pharma industry practice. Other items were much below the union’s proposals,” Matula reiterated.

Conciliation meetings have been conducted.
“In last Friday’s conciliation conference at the DOLE, the union proposed options to resolve their labor dispute but management’s panel said it had no authority to decide. Its counsel said Takeda has yet to wait for higher-ups to decide,” Matula said.

Meanwhile, the strike will continue.
The picket at DOLE Intramuros Monday (3 September 2018) morning comes at the heels of another conciliation and mediation hearing in the afternoon.

TAKEDA HEALTHCARE PHILIPPINES, INC. (THPI) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Takeda Pharmaceuticals International GmBH which is a subsidiary of Takeda Pharmaceuticals Company, Ltd. (TPC) of Japan. It employed more or less 30 thousand employees and is located on the 17th floor, 8 Rockwell, Hidalgo Drive, Rockwell Center, Barangay Poblacion, Makati, Metro Manila. CPM

Contact: Atty. Sonny Matula
President, Federation of Free Workers (FFW)
Mobile: 09178079041
Email:dabigdyul@gmail.com