The Tacloban Case in the Light of Catholic Social Teaching
(Excerpted from “Committed Social Engagement: Catholic Social Teaching at Work in Society (College Textbook), Winifredo T. Nierras, Ph.D, Kindle Self-Publishing, ISBN: 9781073002276, pp. 81-98, June 10, 2019)
In 1984 and 1985, the faculty and employees of Divine Word University of Tacloban organized a labor union and named it Divine Word University Employees Union (DWUEU). Then, DWUEU called for a collective bargaining with the administration of the university. Due to the reluctance of the administrators to negotiate with the union, two prolonged strikes ensued in 1988 and in 1989. Sadly, court battles followed. In 1990, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the labor union. The court required the university to pay P250 million in back salaries and allowances due to its labor union. Despite the ruling, the administration still refused to negotiate. Consequently, SVD [employer] closed the university in 1995 instead of accepting the Supreme Court ruling.[1]
The case of the faculty and employees of Divine Word University of Tacloban[2] is about labor union-related problem like wages or compensation of workers. The university being a Catholic school is expected to adhere to the teaching of the Catholic Church particularly the Catholic Social Teaching. While we appreciate the concerns of the church on labor problem, through her social teachings, in trying to impress upon business establishments (schools included) the value and dignity of labor, we cannot help it but invoke them to set a very good example. They are employers themselves and ought to treat their employees with dignity too. At the very least, the Catholic Church must be reminded in part by a statement of the 1971 assembly of the world Synod of Bishops termed “Justice in the World” that "anyone who ventures to speak to people about justice must first be just in their eyes." They should practice what they preach, so to speak. As they admonish businessmen or preach good practices in the work place, they must make sure they promote these practices too in their own businesses. The Catholic Church has also its own cases of union busting and intimidation of workers. Lest we must forget, the closure of the Divine Word University-Tacloban (DWU-T), an institution of higher learning ran by the Society of the Divine Word (SVD) in Tacloban City, Leyte. Founded in 1927, it was closed by the school administrators after a court ruling favoring the labor union which represents its faculty members and other employees. Catholic employers Catholic employers from different establishments or institutions differ in the ways they treat their employees and in their approaches or manners in giving them compensation and benefits. Some are too generous, a few are reasonable and others are just too stingy. Sadly, there are some Catholic employers today who refuse to negotiate with the union or continue to harass, intimidate, and fire employees who seek to join or form unions in the workplace. Perhaps they even spend large sums of money to employ “union avoidance” firms or consultants that openly brag about their records in “union prevention in the workplace.” They may harbor anti-union sentiments out of ignorance of Catholic teaching on economics, work, and workers’ rights. Some, of course, know what the Church teaches about the importance of creating unions in the workplace and with full knowledge and consent attempt to prevent or to bust unions. Fortunately, there are many examples of Catholic employers who enjoy productive relationships with employee unions. But it is a matter of grave concern that even a minority of Catholic employers engage in scandalous behavior by openly violating Catholic Social Teaching on workers' rights. Some Catholic employers may have thought that unions are optional in Church teaching and that, while employers are obligated to pay a living wage, they are not required to recognize or support worker unions. Some Catholic employers may also have taken the organizing drives as a personal insult and are upset at the lack of respect shown them by the workers. Perhaps some of our students today may become our employers in the future. They may act as a Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of a company or hold an administrative position in a government or private institution or become an employer or owner of a business enterprise. A brief review of Catholic teaching on unionism will surely assist them. They may be people who have good-will but they may have a mistaken understanding on what the Church teaches on unionism. The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church (2004) is a remarkable summary of 2000 years of official Catholic Social Teaching. To place Catholic teaching on labor unions in its proper context, they must consult the chapters on, "Principles of the Church's Social Doctrine," "Human Work," "Economic Life," and "Political Life."[3] Below are several principles that emerge in this significant treatment of Catholic teaching on labor unions, to wit: 1. Unions are indispensable for the universal common good Catholic teaching states that labor unions are a "positive influence for social order and solidarity, and are therefore an indispensable element of social life" (no. 305). Further, Catholic teaching states that unions must play an active role "in the whole task of economic and social development and in the attainment of the universal common good" (no. 307). The Church teaches that unions are essential to a socially just society. 2. Unions are rooted in the right of free association In Catholic teaching the right to form unions is neither a privilege nor a mere product of positive civil law. The Compendium states, The Magisterium recognizes the fundamental role played by labor unions whose existence is connected with the right to form associations or unions to defend the vital interests of workers employed in the various professions (no. 305). The Church teaches that free association is rooted in the natural law that cannot be abridged or denied by civil law. Also, employers may not employ a just civil law to deny a right that is rooted in the natural law. Hence, any attempt to deny free association is a violation of natural law that is rooted in divine law. 3. Unions protect the right to fair wages and benefits The Compendium states, "Remuneration is the most important means for achieving justice in work relationships". The just wage is the legitimate fruit of work. They [employers] commit grave injustice when they refuse to pay a just wage or when they do not give it in due time and proportion to the work done (cf. Lv 19:13; Dt 24:14-15; Jas 5:4). The Church further defines a fair wage as such that workers "may be furnished the means to cultivate...material, social, cultural and spiritual life and that of his dependents..."[4] The principle that "natural justice always is above the freedom of the contract" has led the Church to consistently reject either the payment of a "minimum wage" or a wage that, though freely negotiated, fails the higher standard of a just or living wage. 4. Unions foster solidarity through participation and subsidiarity Solidarity—especially expressed as a "preferential option for the poor"- has long been a cornerstone of Catholic Social Teaching. Solidarity is based on "the intrinsic social nature of the human person" and the "bond of interdependence between individuals and peoples" (no. 192). Subsidiarity defends "smaller essential cells of society" that serve as "intermediate associations" between the individual and the state. The Compendium teaches that, The characteristic implication of subsidiarity is participation...by means of which the citizen, either as an individual or in association with others, whether directly or through representation, contributes to the cultural, economic, political and social life of the civil community to which he belongs. (no. 189) The Church supports unions as intermediate associations that contribute to the solidarity of all through meaningful decisions that affect the common good. 5. Unions must seek cooperative relations with employers The Compendium teaches that "relations within the world of work must be marked by cooperation; hatred and attempts to eliminate the other are completely unacceptable" (no. 306). The concept of "class warfare" is rejected in Catholic teaching since, "both 'labor' and 'capital' represent indispensable components to the process of production." Hence, unions must respect and work cooperatively with employers and employers must accept unions as legitimate social entities that have a legitimate stake in the workplace. When employers and employees collaborate together in the pursuit of their individual good the result is an increase in the universal common good. 6. Role of unions The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, while upholding the importance of unions, gives prudent advice about the role of unions: Union organizations have the duty to exercise influence in the political arena, make it duly sensitive to labor problems and helping it to work so that workers’ rights are respected. Unions do not, however, have the character of “political parties” struggling for power, and they should not be forced to submit to the decisions of political parties nor be too closely linked to them. “In such a situation they easily lose contact with their specific role, which is to secure the just rights of workers within the framework of the common good of the whole of society.[5] Christian Justice The relation between labor and management becomes more crucial and correspondingly more complex as the years’ progress. There will always be unsolved problems and frictions between labor and management. In mitigating, if not eradicating these problems and frictions, both labor and management should adhere to the advice of Pope John XXIII: Any human society if it is to be well ordered and productive, must lay down as a foundation this principle: that every human being is a person, his nature is endowed with intelligence and free will.[6] This implies that a productive society depends on human justice and charity in its economy as well as in the areas of civil, social, and educational rights. Christian justice implies definite standards for both management and labor. The purpose of management is to operate business at maximal efficiency and thus at maximal profit. But in so doing, it is obliged to give just compensation to all its employees. The Tacloban case involving labor and management is both diverse and complex. The management has both the legal and moral right to control the property it owns. It has also the right to control labor in order to safeguard its economic interest. However, in the modern economy, the worker, through collective bargaining agreement, has become powerful enough to balance the economic power of management. This is apparently a manifestation that the economic power of the management is not anymore absolute. As a result, just like in the case of the Divine Word University of Tacloban, labor has gained more and more control over the property which is owned by management. In this regard, a question has to be answered: how much control labor can exercise over the property of the employer before it is usurping the latter’s just right to manage. If labor can exercise complete control over the property of management, then probably free enterprise loses its meaning. What is therefore the Christian solution over the right of management to control labor and property and the right of labor to regulate the power of management. The Christian solution must lie somewhere between management’s extreme theory of “residual rights” and the extreme labor theory of ‘implied limitations.” The theory of residual rights simply states that the employer has absolute power[7] to do anything which is not forbidden by law or union collective bargaining agreement. On the contrary, the theory of implied limitations[8] holds that every labor contract commits the employer to maintain the status quo in every area not specifically mentioned. While neither management nor labor holds strictly to either of these views, the friction between them on the role of management often stems from the tendency of each to drift toward such extremes. As labor proposes further regulation of the employers’ property, each new suggestion must be considered from the dual perspective of the protection of management’s property as well as labor’s rights. Another key question in the case of the Divine Word University of Tacloban is the demand of labor for “total job security.” The demand for “total job security” includes, but not limited to the following, the demand for guaranteed employment, guaranteed annual wage, and sick leave. Modern management agrees that these benefits are the right of labor and often, perhaps, offers more job security in place of increased wages. The increasing and insistent demands of labor for absolute job security at the employer’s expense, may be asking for a bit too much. The demand of labor may lead to the management’s insolvency or bankruptcy. When insolvency or bankruptcy would compromise job security of labor, management has always the obligation to observe the two-notice rule provided by Labor Code of the Philippines, namely: notice which apprises the employee of the particular acts or omissions for which his or her dismissal is sought, and subsequent notice which informs the employee of the employer’s decision to dismiss him or her.[9] Thus, the total job security demanded by individual unions may not always be beneficial either to their own employers or the economy as a whole. Christian justice demands even as the employer must sacrifice his absolute control of property for the common good, so must the employee be willing to accept the same economic insecurity as management. [1] Cf. Associated Labor Unions (ALU) and Divine Word University Employees Union – ALU (DWUEU-ALU) vs. Court of Appeals, The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Palo, Leyte, and Divine Word University of Tacloban, 213 SCRA 759 [2] IBID [3] Cf. Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, pp. 71-94, 115-182 [4] Cf. Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, no. 302 [5] Cf. Saint Pope John Paul II, Laborem Exercens, no. 20: AA573 (1981), 631; Compendium, no. 307 [6] Cf. Pope John XXIII, Pacem in Terris, nos. 3-7 [7] Cf. Black Law Dictionary [8] Cf. Republic vs. CA and the Heirs of Luis Santos etc, G.R. 146587 July 2, 2002 [9] Cf. Sec. 13, BP 130; Sec. 2-6 Rule XIV book V, Rules and Regulations Implementing the Labor Code as amended |
|