Global Policy Forum

By Catherine C. Junia

The National Union of Bank Employees (NUBE) is getting ready to present before delegates of the International Labor Organization (ILO), a paper detailing on the growing anxiety of workers on mergers and acquisitions (M&As) in the banking industry. NUBE - a group of 16 bank unions - recently drafted a unified stand on the issue of bank M&As, stressing that "no (such) mergers or consolidations should take place without consultation with the bank employees and unions."

According NUBE, the paper seeks to "highlight the collective sentiments of bank workers whose jobs are on the brink of being reduced further as the present administration has already committed the financial sector for full implementation of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) slated next year." With the fuller liberalization of the banking industry, NUBE said the merger process is bound to intensify, resulting in the displacement of more bank employees.

"We, unions in the banking industry are taking a strong stand against mergers and consolidations without any consultation with bank employees and unions. We decry a merger process whose logic clearly points to the creation of a bank oligopoly," NUBE said.

NUBE, however, made clear that the unions are not against the modernization of the industry and its services. What it is not in favor of, it stressed, is the lack of consultation between the bank and its employees. "There are ways of modernizing bank services and enhancing competition without sacrificing jobs and without endangering the principle of secrecy in banking deposits, which is the bedrock of banking stability in the Philippines," the group said.

As such, the labor group is urging government, ILO and the industry to help institutionalize social dialogue and consultation with bank employees and unions in each bank and within the industry. "A broad-based consultation process in the banking industry will not only ensure industrial democracy but will also enable the nation to come up with alternative measures to bank modernization which does not lead to oligopoly and limited banking service for the poorer sectors of society," NUBE said.

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