PLDT Inc. and its labor union reached an agreement to start negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA), effectively terminating the planned strike.
PLDT said in a disclosure the stock exchange Wednesday its management and the Manggagawa sa Komunikasyon ng Pilipinas (MKP), under the auspices of the Office of the Department of Labor and Employment Secretary, through its Undersecretary for Labor Relations Benedicto Ernesto Bitonio Jr., had come to an amicable resolution to begin their 2024-2027 CBA negotiations.
“As a result, the notice of strike filed by the MKP in April 2024 has been lifted,” PLDT said.
“PLDT operations remain ‘business as usual’ and focused on serving the needs of its customers,” it said.
PLDT earlier said the negotiations should commence in September 2024, as mandated by the Labor Code’s “freedom period”.
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 they first sent the notice to negotiate.
Until then, the Labor Code obligates both PLDT and MKP to respect the current CBA to preserve industrial peace.
PLDT said on its website it has more than 17,000 employees nationwide. The profitable company reported P26.6-billion net income in 2023.
It expects core net income to settle “north of P35 billion” 2024, higher than P34.3 billion in 2023.
PLDT’s consolidated service revenues grew 1 percent to a record P191.4 billion in 2023 led by data and broadband, which increase 4 percent to P157.6 billion.