Sixty-four casual project employees and field workers of the First Catanduanes Electric Cooperative, Inc. (FICELCO) will become regular, non-plantilla employees by April 1, 2024 following a mandatory conference held by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) between the affected workers and co-op management last week.
Most of the 64 contractual workers agreed to become regular but non-plantilla employees of the cooperative during the conference held last Monday, March 11, 2024 at the Virac Sports Center.
The agreement was spurred by an inspection conducted by DOLE regional office Labor Inspector Jomell Pasano last Feb. 6, a day after his office received a text message regarding the plight of FICELCO casual employees and laborers who have been hired and rehired on the basis of specific projects over the years.
While the inspection found the cooperative to be compliant with General Labor Standards (GLS) and Occupational Safety and Health Standards (OSHS), it discovered the non-regularization of 64 employees as not compliant with the government’s policy on security of tenure and contractualization.
FICELCO was ordered to recognize the workers as regular employees by Feb. 28, 2024, but was advised by its legal counsel to wait for DOLE’s notice of mandatory conference.
None of the affected workers appeared during the initial conference on Feb. 29 and only three of them were present during the meeting reset on Mar. 7, prompting DOLE to schedule a final conference last Monday, Mar. 11.
During the conference presided over by the designated hearing officer of DOLE, Engr. Julie Cid-Manalang, all of the workers present agreed to become regular employees rather than face separation with benefits.
It was explained that as a first option, they would be separated from the service and would be paid a month’s salary for every year of service rendered, which would cost the cooperative about P1.5 million.
The 64 workers picked the second option, wherein they would become regular but non-plantilla employees of the cooperative with all the mandatory benefits required by government – 13th month pay, SSS, PagIBIG and PhilHealth membership, and five-day leave benefit.
However, as their positions are not included in the regular plantilla of the cooperative, they would not enjoy the other benefits granted by the cooperative to its plantilla employees, such as rice allowance, hazard pay, clothing allowance and others awarded under a Collective Bargaining Agreement.
The 64 personnel were set to sign their contracts as regular employees Monday afternoon, with the contracts to take effect by April 1 as they were still under an existing contract until the end of the month.
The qualified among them will also have priority in the filling up of vacant plantilla positions, the management explained.
Some of them told management that they chose regularization, as it would ensure their security of tenure and free them from the possibility of their contracts not getting renewed.
Majority of the 64 are performing jobs as office staff, laborers and utility workers.
According to the personnel department, there are 190 positions in FICELCO’s approved plantilla but only 169 are filled up.
Five of the 64 affected workers have filed applications for newly opened vacant positions, it was bared.
Meanwhile, 14 other casual employees of FICELCO who filed a complaint for illegal dismissal with the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC) are now back at their previous posts after the latter ruled in their favor.
The casual employees, who had been hired previously by the co-op on fixed-term contracts for its projects for at least two years, sued after they were advised that their contracts would end on Jan. 31, 2023 and would not be renewed.
In its defense, FICELCO management argued that it had no alternative but to hire employees on a fixed contract basis as it could not create items or plantilla positions until the corresponding member consumer-employee ratio is reached as determined by the National Electrification Administration (NEA).
The NLRC, however, sided with the complainants and ruled that they were regular employees of the cooperative as they were repeatedly hired for necessary work and were illegally dismissed.
It ordered FICELCO to reinstate the 14 complainants to their last respective positions without loss of seniority rights or diminution of salary and other benefits, or equivalent positions.
It likewise directed the cooperative to pay tentatively the complainants full back wages reckoned from the date of their dismissal until the date of the decision, with the workers to get at least P120,000 each.
Upon advice of counsel, the Board of Directors however agreed to file a partial appeal with NLRC and posted bond in the amount of P1.67 million, representing the total back wages awarded to the 14 workers, with the Commission.
The workers are now back with the cooperative but they would have to wait for the appeal to be resolved with finality before they can be given the backwages.