Exploring CBA in the Philippines

The Collective Bargaining Agreement is a system of relations among the employers, employees, and the government 1 that helps achieve the policy of the state to ensure a stable but dynamic and just industrial process. One can look at collective bargaining as an instrumental tool to give a voice to the Filipino rank-and-file workers.

Labor relations and industrial relations institutions were supported in the Philippines earlier than most of its Asian neighbors. It can be gainsaid that we now have a mature industrial relations system. If unchanged, as was manifested since 1989, there may be very little room for improvement. Membership in unions apparently reached its peak more than 20 years ago and is currently declining gradually. Similar trends are seen in collective bargaining coverage. Such situation is manifested in the fact that the yield ratio of union membership to CBA coverage (i.e., the number of unions which successfully conclude CBAs and whose members eventually attain CBA coverage) is at an extremely low level. Remarkably, labor laws and legislations in the Philippines now affect practically every aspect of the employment relationship.2 It is interesting to note the collective bargaining process in different industries and the dynamics of the CBA development.

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p. 260, Everyones Labor Code, C.A. Azucena, 2012. Industrial Relations and Collective Bargaining in the Philippines, Benedicto Bitonio, Jr, November 2012, Industrial Labour Office, Geneva