Another labor feud looming in Clark over pay, benefits

CLARK FREEPORT—While still trying to appease its supervisory personnel, the Clark Development Corp. (CDC) is now faced with another labor dispute after workers of the CDC-run Mimosa Leisure Estate have voted to go on strike to protest alleged illegal deductions in their salaries and their unpaid benefits.

The CDC and the Association of CDC Supervisory Personnel were locked in a labor dispute at the National Conciliation and Mediation Board (NCMB) until Dec. 5 when both parties agreed to settle their differences.

But on the same day, 455 members of the Association of Clark Mimosa Employees (Acme) voted to go on strike in a process administered by the Department of Labor and Employment at the 215-hectare leisure estate here.

Decisive vote

Reynaldo Geron, Acme president, said there were two spoiled votes and no one voted against the strike.

Geron said they were bent to go on strike to protest what he called as unfair labor practices by the CDC against the Mimosa employees.

“These include illegal deduction on our withholding tax … approximately amounting to P5 million. Almost 400 employees are affected since 2006 unto February 2011,” he said.

“There is also discrimination on fringe benefits, particularly the PEI (productivity enhancement incentive) and Pera (provisional emergency relief allowance), which are given to all government-owned and -controlled corporations.”

The Inquirer on Wednesday tried but failed to reach CDC president Felipe Antonio Remollo and CDC executive vice president Philip Jose Panlilio to get their statements on the impending strike. Their secretaries said Remollo was in a meeting while Panlilio was not in his office.

No security

The Mimosa workers’ union said that for the past 12 years that the CDC has taken control of the leisure estate from  Mondragon Leisure and Resorts Corp., the state-owned corporation continues to deny them their job security.

“For 12 years now, the CDC still considers us as ‘project employees’ and refuses to consider us as CDC employees. All other benefits being enjoyed by CDC employees are not given to us,” Geron said.

He said Mimosa workers did not receive the P10,000 PEI, also known in the past administration as the “GMA bonus.”

2009 strike

In December 2009, Mimosa workers staged a strike to demand security of tenure after learning that a private corporation was set to take over the operation of the leisure estate from CDC.

The dispute was settled when CDC assured Acme that it would endorse all employees to the new investor and that their separation benefits would be given to them in full.

The takeover did not materialize, though, and Mimosa is still being managed and operated by CDC to this day.