Workers accuse DOLE exec of ‘cheating’

SAN PEDRO, Laguna—A workers’ union demanded that a labor official be punished after they allegedly caught her rigging the results of a union certification election in favor of the company’s management.

Ronald Hipolito, spokesperson of the Car and Auto-Related Industries against Imperialist Domination (CAR-AID), accused Marivic Martinez of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) in Laguna of “cheating” during an election that would have certified the workers’ union and collective bargaining agreement in the Philippine Auto Components Inc. (PAC).

PAC is a Japanese-owned auto parts manufacturing company located in Carmelray Industrial Park in Canlubang, Calamba City in Laguna.

“We want [Martinez] removed from office. Our lawyer is preparing charges against her but first, we have to file a petition for a reelection and for the annulment of the election results,” Hipolito on Monday said of the election that was held on March 22.

Hipolito said 601 voting workers cast “yes” or “no” votes to forming a union. During the canvassing, Martinez, a supervising labor executive, allegedly replaced some of the “yes” votes with “no” votes.

Martinez, reached by phone on Monday, said the workers were only “fabricating a story because they could not accept their loss.”

“We saw her drop a ballot form on the floor. As she picked it up, she took out a bundle of ballots that came from her shoe cover (required footwear gear by the company to avoid contamination). That’s when the workers called the attention on her,” said one of the workers’ poll watchers, who said he stood ten steps away from Martinez.

He said at the height of the commotion, Martinez dropped the bundled ballots that came from her shoe cover into the ballot box and slipped some ballots from the box into the right pocket of her pants.

“I noticed that her pocket was bulging when she stepped out and went to the comfort room with another poll watcher from the management’s side,” said the worker, who requested anonymity for fear of reprisal from the management.

He said the ballots that came from Martinez were rolled while the rest were folded into three.

But Martinez denied the story, saying the ballots “accidentally” fell on the floor. “When I picked it up to put it back to the ballot box, that’s when the workers started making a commotion. They were in a fighting mood right away, as some tried to grab the ballot boxes,” she said.

The counting was continued, resulting in 267 “no” votes against the 250 “yes” votes, Martinez said.

The rest of the votes were challenged or spoiled votes.

She said the ballots totaled 601, meaning “there were no bogus ballots,” but the workers insisted Martinez replaced some of them with the fake ones.

Martinez called the cheating allegation “unfair” and said the election results would stay.

On Monday, members of CAR-AID and the Pagkakaisa ng Manggagawa sa Timog Katagalugan trooped to the DOLE office in Manila to protest the incident and other forms of labor harassment in Southern Tagalog.