Union accuses VECO of "dirty legal tactics"

CEBU, Philippines – The Visayan Electric Company employees union yesterday accused company officials of using "dirty legal tactics" by withholding the salary of its president.

Casmero Mahilum, president of VECO Employees Union (VECEU), said that the motion of the management to course his salary through the National Labor Relations Commission is meant to delay his compensation.

"It is in arrogant defiance and contempt of the order of Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz to reinstate me in the payroll," Mahilum said in a press statement.

Mahilum slammed VECO officials "for declaring in media that they have deposited a check for my salary while seeming to forget that the NLRC already rejected accepting their motion."

Mahilum said that he discovered from the NLRC that the office did not accept VECO's motion to deposit his salary to the NLRC.

VECO spokesperson Ethel Natera, in a press statement, said that NLRC did accept their motion and check but they were advised to forward the motion and check to the Regional Arbitration Board since NLRC doesn't have the proper account where to lodge the money. 

VECO said that the move of NLRC and RAB on how to deal with the deposit is an administrative matter.

According to VECO, they have to deposit the check at the NLRC pending resolution of their motion for clarification on the payroll reinstatement.

VECO sought a clarification on the order whether or not the reinstatement covers only to basic salary or it includes other benefits.

"Pending clarification on this issue, we proceeded to deposit the check with NLRC as a sign of good faith and in compliance with the order of Secretary Baldoz," VECO statement reads.

Renato Gregorio Gimenez, VECEU vice president and spokesperson, said in a separate statement that "the motion is meant to delay, if not withhold, the salary of the union president and that the move is grossly unfair and inhuman as it will starve Mahilum and his family."

Mahilum added that the rejection of the NLRC of VECO's motion vindicates the union and exposes the management's defiance of the DOLE order.

"We, thus, urge management to fight squarely and stop engaging in dirty legal tactics. We challenge them to a mediation process as offered by the clergy. It removes technical maneuverings of lawyers and speedily addresses the root of the labor dispute," said Mahilum. (FREEMAN)