Bakeshop union set to file case vs. DOLE

CEBU, Philippines – For allegedly issuing “conflicting and confusing orders,” the Anita’s Home Bakeshop, Incorporated Employees Association will be filing graft and corruption charges against top officials of the Department of Labor and Employment.

Lawyer Emmanuel Cañete, union consultant of AHBIEA, said yesterday they will file charges against DOLE Regional Director Elias Cayanong and mid-arbiter Ma. Theresa Casiño.

The alleged conflicting and confusing orders include the one Cayanong issued on March 12, 2008 that registered the Collective Bargaining Agreement between Anita’s Home Bakeshop and AHBIEA and the order issued on April 18, 2008, which registered the Anita’s Home Bakeshop Union-Alliance of Nationalist Genuine Labor Organization-Kilusang Mayo Uno.

Cañete said it appears that DOLE did not respect the registration of AHBIEA as the sole and exclusive bargaining agent of Anita’s Home Bakeshop Inc. when it registered AHBWU-ANGLO-KMU.

“We have an existing CBA with the management and it is highly questionable why DOLE entertained the petition of AHBWU-ANGLO-KMU for a certification election,” Cañete said.

The CBA between the bakeshop management and AHBIEA took effect from February 1, 2009 and will last until March 2013.

The Freeman tried to get Cayanong’s reaction but he was not available as of this writing. Casiño was also reportedly out of town.

Cañete said that during the pre-election conference yesterday at the DOLE office, Casiño ruled in favor of holding a certification election, as petitioned by AHBWU-ANGLO-KMU.

Cañete, however, said they have no problem with holding a certification election because they are confident that they will win because majority of the bakeshop employees belong to AHBIEA.

What he is more worried about, Cañete said, is the legal implication of the certification election. The election will be on April 24, 2009.

“If we will win, which is certain, the implication is we will be having a CBA negotiation again when in the first place, we already have an existing CBA,” he said.

Cañete said they already filed a Petition for Certiorari before the Court of Appeals in the hope to stop the holding of the certification election.

Anita’s Home Bakeshop has been operating for over 40 years without any labor dispute until last year when AHBWU-ANGLO-KMU filed a notice of strike on the ground of union busting. – Mitchelle L. Palaubsanon/JMO (THE FREEMAN)