Subscribers of the dominant telecommunication group, the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company or simply PLDT, and its wireless unit Smart might one day find themselves without internet service as a workers’ strike looms over.
The strike threat was made as PLDT was trying to generate a positive cash flow amid a more than 200-percent increase in its core net income for 2023, or to P26.61 billion.
PLDT, controlled by telco and media mogul Manuel V. Pangilinan, has so far refused to talk immediately with representatives of the Manggagawa sa Komunikasyon ng Pilipinas (MKP) for negotiations on the new collective bargaining agreement (CBA), insisting that it will only start CBA negotiations with MKP in September.
MKP, for its part, said 83 percent of the 4,041 total members voted in favor of a strike to push for the immediate start of negotiations for their CBA covering 2024 to 2027.
Willing To Negotiate
PLDT said that its management is “willing and able to negotiate” with MKP at the right time, which is during the “freedom period” or at least 60 days before the expiry of their CBA on November 8, 2024.
PLDT People Group First Vice President JM Co clarified that refusal to bargain is an unfair labor practice if there is an arbitrary refusal to negotiate, which the company is not doing.
“It is PLDT’s position that a strike conducted on this ground has no valid basis. This is supported by law and the parties’ rich bargaining history over the past 30 years,” the PLDT official said.
“The time to sit down and start collective bargaining with MKP is in September 2024, not today,” Co said.
PLDT said that under the Labor Code, the parties are tasked to meet and negotiate the renewal or modification of the terms of the CBA at least 60 days prior to its expiry – the so-called freedom period – which, in this case, will begin in the first week of September, or more than three months from now and almost seven months from the time the MKP sent first sent its Notice to Negotiate.
For its part, MKP said it sent to PLDT management on February 20, 2024 its "Notice to Negotiate and Submission of Statement of Proposals," which was followed by MKP’s filing of a notice of strike on April 5, 2024 on the ground of PLDT’s alleged refusal to bargain.
According to reports, unionized PLDT workers under KMP conducted the strike vote on May 14 to 15 in all the the telco’s branches and offices nationwide.The union then submitted the poll results to the Regional Conciliation and Mediation Board-National Capital Region.
Positive Cash Flow
The unionized workers under MKP threatening a strike comes amid PLDT’s seeking a positive cash flow.
At a briefing in March, PLDT Chief Finance Officer Danny Yu said the company is allocating P75 billion to P78 billion for capital expenditures (capex) this year, which is 12-percent lower than P85-billion capex in 2023. This is the second straight year that PLDT lowered its capex.
Yu said that PLDT had to reduce its capex this year to generate free cash flow.
“This is in line with the goal of reducing capex spend in the near to medium term and attaining positive free cash flow as soon as practicable,” Yu said.
Pangilinan echoed this, saying that lowering of PLDT’s capex this year is line with the group’s overall strategy to reduce capital spending in the near to medium term, so the telco can attain free cashflow.
To recall, PLDT spent P635.2 billion in capex in the past 10 years to maintain its market leadership amid rapid development of information and communications technology.
This means that when PLDT and MKP start CBA negotiations, the unionized workers will have to face the reality that the telco may no longer be generous in granting pay hikes. And a strike will not be good at all for PLDT.
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