Effect given to the recommendations of the committee and the Governing Body - Report No 316, June 1999

Effect given to the recommendations of the Committee and the Governing Body

1. 72. When it last examined this case in November 1997 (see 308th Report, paras. 65-67), the Committee urged the Government to ensure that the elections demanded by the members of the Cebu Mitsumi Employees' Union (CMEU), a local union of the Associated Labor Unions (ALU), itself an affiliate of the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP), are held immediately at the Cebu Mitsumi enterprise, especially in view of the fact that the newly established CMEU filed a petition for a certification election in February 1994, which had been signed by almost all the workers at the enterprise (see 302nd Report, paras. 405-408).
2. 73. In a communication dated 25 January 1999, the Government states that on 8 June 1998 the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) denied the employer's motion. It adds that on 17 November 1998 a pre-election conference was conducted with the presence of representatives of both parties, which decided that an updated list of qualified voters should be submitted by 20 January 1999 and that another conference was to be held on 28 January to fix the inclusion-exclusion proceedings and the conduct of the certification election.
3. 74. The Committee notes this information. It recalls that it is not necessarily incompatible with Convention No. 87 to provide for the certification of the most representative union in a given unit as the exclusive bargaining agent for that unit. This is the case, however, only if a number of safeguards are provided. The Committee has pointed out that in several countries in which the procedure of certifying unions as exclusive bargaining agents has been established, it has been regarded as essential that such safeguards should include the following: (a) certification to be made by an independent body; (b) the representative organizations to be chosen by a majority vote of the employees in the unit concerned; (c) the right of an organization which fails to secure a sufficiently large number of votes to ask for a new election after a stipulated period; (d) the right of an organization other than the certificated organizations to demand a new election after a fixed period, often 12 months, has elapsed since the previous election (see Digest of decisions and principles of the Freedom of Association Committee, 4th edition, 1996, para. 834).
4. 75. The Committee deeply regrets that the question of which workers have the right to vote has not yet been resolved after over four years have elapsed since the petition to hold certification elections signed by nearly all the workers at the Cebu Mitsumi enterprise was filed. The Committee accordingly once again urges the Government to ensure that elections are held immediately in the Cebu Mitsumi enterprise and to keep it informed as a matter of urgency of the outcome of the elections.