BDO union gets global recognition

MANILA, Philippines - The Banco de Oro Employees Association (BDOEA), an affiliate of the National Union of Bank Employees (NUBE) with more than 12,000 members, will be bestowed the UNI Global Union Breaking Through Award for 2013 at the upcoming meeting of the UNI World Executive Board in Dublin, Ireland, on Nov. 12-13.

The UNI Global Union is a global union federation for skills and services covering 900 trade unions representing over 20 million members. 

This is the first time that a workers’ union in the Philippines will garner the prestigious Breaking Through Award which is presented annually at a ceremony organized either at the UNI World Congress in Congress years or at the World Executive Meeting in non-Congress years.

The first UNI Global Union Breaking Through Awards were presented during the UNI World Congress in Nagasaki in November 2010. 

The award to BDOEA-NUBE comes on the heels of the recent award received, on the other hand, by management of BDO Unibank Inc. for the Best Asian Bank Award for 2013 by FinanceAsia.

Apart from winning this most coveted award, BDO’s wholly-owned subsidiary, BDO Capital and Investment Corp., was also recognized earlier by FinanceAsia as the country’s Best Investment Bank and Best Equity House.

In 2007, BDO was one of the five Model Employer Partners recognized and awarded by the UNI-APRO in the region.

BDO is currently considered as the largest bank in the Philippines, with assets exceeding P1 trillion. The bank has also the biggest loan portfolio, deposit base, and capital. 

The awards received by both BDO union and management may set the stage for a stable industrial relations front in the banking industry with BDOEA-NUBE leading the way.

BDOEA president Nestor P. Perez pointed out that the NUBE-BDOEA collective bargaining agreement (CBA) by far is the considered the “most superior” in the banking industry.

Perez said that from wage increases, bonuses, gratuity, healthcare and other economic benefits, the collective bargaining techniques of NUBE has been the key to what makes the BDOEA CBA a pioneering platform in the banking industry.