Policy Issue
The LMC, created in the essence of participatory democracy, is a non-adversarial and nonadjudicatory venue for both labor and management to work hand-in-hand in discussing issues not covered by collective bargaining agreements, such as work environments, business operations, and productivity, among others. On the other hand, a GM is a non-adversarial mechanism where certain rules of procedure are followed for the adjustment and resolution of grievances arising from the interpretation or the implementation of the CBA, those arising from the enforcement of company personnel policies, and violations of any provision of the CBA or company personnel policies.
As of December 2023, there are 5,160 LMCs in 4,961 companies nationwide and a recorded 5,179 active GMs. Out of all the companies, 2.78% with LMCs and 3% with GMs have filed cases with the National Conciliation and Mediation Board (NCMB) mostly on Notice of Strikes/Lockouts and Preventive Mediation. It may be inferred that LMCs and GMs played a pivotal role in bipartite dispute settlement. Hence, evaluating the effectiveness of these mechanisms and exploring their roles in contributing to industrial peace is a timely endeavor.
The combined number of companies with LMCs and GMs (10,140) constitute 1% of the total number of companies registered in the Philippine Statistical Authority (1,109,684 companies). Given the performance of LMCs and GMs in the past year, it would seem that these mechanisms are beneficial in preventing the filing of labor disputes. Moreover, labor inspection data show that only 14% (336) of the companies with LMC and GM have been found to have labor standards violations during the conduct of inspection thereby strengthening the argument that LMCs and GMs help foster industrial peace. However, despite these numbers, program implementers have faced the challenge of companies' willingness, particularly of workers' representatives in establishing an LMC and a GM (for unorganized companies). The advantages brought about by LMC and GM in the voluntary resolution of disputes and de-escalation of issues may not be apparent to companies due to lack of awareness. Hence, this study is a timely endeavor to gauge how companies may benefit from LMCs and GMs. Furthermore, this study complements the program evaluation of the NCMB to assess the effectiveness of bipartite mechanisms.
The proposed study seeks to answer the question: How are LMCs and GMs contributing to the attainment of industrial peace? The general objective of the study is to examine the role of bipartite dispute mechanisms in promoting a harmonious, safe, decent, and productive workplace relations between labor and management in the Philippines.
Specifically, the paper aims to:
1. Assess plant-level drivers, principles, workplace arrangements/mechanisms that create an enabling environment for promoting mutually agreed solutions to preventing or resolving labor disputes and promoting harmonious workplaces/labor-management relations;
2. Identify issues and challenges that hinder bipartite mechanisms from promoting harmonious workplace relations; and
3. Recommend policy and governance areas for upscaling, institutionalizing, or strengthening bipartite mechanisms in the workplace