Assumption of Jurisdiction must be scrapped

AO 291 missing the point

The Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) Labor Center wants the Assumption of Jurisdiction (AJ) scrapped while it took a jab at the Administrative Order 291 (AO 291) of the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) calling the move “like prescribing an aspirin tablet to cure cancer.”

According the to the DoLE website, the Secretary Arturo Brion issued AO 291 which stipulates that “case disposition would be carried out within a specific period of time, with the decisions expected to be rendered within such period,” and “...[T]he Office of the Secretary shall issue a submission order and subsequently render a decision within 60 days from the date of submission for decision.”

“Indeed labor cases are rotting in courts and workers are always on the losing end because of delay in the resolution of disputes. But the main problem is the existence of the Assumption of Jurisdiction (AJ) which provides a legal blanket for the police and military to interfere a purely union-management issue, resulting to violence. AJ should be scrapped immediately,” said Elmer “Ka Bong” Labog, National Chairperson of the KMU.

Labog clarified how the AJ becomes an affront to core labor rights of workers. “Under the Herrera Law, the DoLE secretary can decide whether a strike is 'inimical to the national interest' and can decide to issue an AJ, which eventually provides the legal justification for police and military to step-in, just like what happened in Hacienda Luisita where at least 7 workers were killed in the picketline.”

Last November 2004 during the strike of the workers and farm workers of Hacienda Lusita, then labor secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas issued an AJ which provided the authority for the police and military to intervene, which led to massacre of at least 7 workers on November 16, 2004. The International Labor Office (ILO) sharply criticized the human rights violations perpetrated by the police and military against the workers of Hacienda Luisita.

“We want the AJ to be scrapped because any strike can be declared illegal under these order and paves the ground for violent dispersals of workers during their concerted actions like what happened in Luisita. The AJ erodes the constitutional right of workers to self-organization and collective action. We do not want a repeat of the Luisita Massacre,” opined Labog.

The KMU supported House Bill 3723 filed in the Lower House by Hon. Crispin Beltran of ANAKPAWIS during the previous 13th Congress seeking to scrap the AJ. “We will lobby again for the same bill to be re-filed in the Lower House this 14th Congress,” ended Labog.