“Management has the capacity to grant the Union’s proposal. The issue now is the Management’s willingness to grant the rank-and-file employees’ reasonable and affordable package proposal.”
By RONALYN V. OLEA
Bulatlat
MANILA – The Philippine Daily Inquirer Employees Union (PDIEU) has sought preventive mediation from the Department of Labor and Employment as negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement reached a deadlock.
PDIEU President Jerome Aning said the PDI management is offering an P18-million package for its rank-and-file employees. This, Aning said, is way below the P80-million package clinched by the union in the 2013 CBA negotiations.
Management is proposing salary hikes of P500-P750-P1,000 or a total of P2,250 for the next three years. The union, meanwhile, is pushing for P2,000-P2,500-P3,500 or a total of P8,000 salary increase from 2017 through 2019.
“As what we have been saying since Day 1 of our CBA negotiations, the Management has the capacity to grant the Union’s proposal. The issue now is the Management’s willingness to grant the rank-and-file employees’ reasonable and affordable package proposal,” Aning said.
Aning said that during the negotiations, the union even suggested possible sources for the union’s proposal. “They [management] do not want to move outside their budget,” Aning told Bulatlat in an interview.
Aning said the management’s proposed salary hikes would not be enough to counter inflation in the next few years.
He added that PDI had a 12-percent reduction of regular workforce since the last CBA.
“They are even threatening us of job cuts,” Aning said.
PDIEU has 219 members. The Philippine Daily Inquirer is just one of the members of the Inquirer Group of Companies. There are no unions in other companies such as Hinge Inquirer Publications, Cebu Daily News, Inquirer LIBRE, Bandera, INQUIRER.net, Megamobile Inquirer, Print Town, DZIQ 990AM Radyo Inquirer, DAG and Inquirer Catalyst Media.
Majority owners of the PDI are members of the prominent Prieto-Rufino business clan.
In a statement, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) said the PDI should recognize the contributions of its rank and file employees by giving the latter their well-deserved salary hikes and benefits.
“We call on our colleagues to unite, exercise our right to organize and work together for the advancement of our collective rights and welfare,” the NUJP said. 
