Media Release August 15, 2000 NAPOCOR MPLOYEES SEEK TO COURAGE, the biggest umbrella organization of government employees’ unions today joined the workers of the National Power Corporation or Napocor in support of their struggle for their jobs. In a picket rally accompanying the Napocor employees’ filing of a petition to the Supreme Court, COURAGE said it is justifiable for the employees to be up in arms against the reorganization program being implemented by the Napocor management. Led by the Napocor Employees Consolidated Union (NECU), the union of Napocor supervisors, the employees have decided to expose and oppose the various schemes of reorganization being perpetuated by the Napocor management which they attested would mean the termination and dislocation of at least more than 2,000 employees. NECU submitted a petition through their lead counsel, Atty. Romy Capulong of the Public Interest law Center (PILC), asking the high court to annul these schemes and restrain the management from further implementing these that undermine the workers’ security of tenure. Among these were the abolition of the Mindanao and Visayas Logistics Offices; the transfer of the Bataan National Power Plant from the Projects office to the office of the Vice President and Genco (Generating Companies) 6 head; reduction of production of the Sucat Thermal Power Plant; and the early retirement of employees under the Special Disengagement Program or the SDP. This comprehensive Reorganization program is now being carried-out against the will of the employees of Napocor by virtue of a resolution, a circular or in the form of a memorandum issued both from the National Power Board and the Napocor officials. All jobs were deemed as vacant, new and contestable wherein all employees who were not placed in the new staffing pattern are deemed separated or retired without just cause. COURAGE cited their experience in their campaign against privatization that employees of agencies to be privatized were subjected to reorganization, laying-off the workers and decreasing the number of regular workers, for the benefit of the interested buyers. They said that less employees mean more profits for business. It is for this reason that COURAGE is supporting the Napocor workers in defense of their jobs. They added that the rank and file union – the Napocor Employees and Workers Union (NEWU) shall likewise file a similar case, boosting further the employees unity and resolve to fight lay-off and privatization. # |
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