Management at the 5-star Peninsula Manila hotel dismissed Jenny Marcos, a member of the Board of Directors of the Peninsula Employees Union, on 3 January 2017. It also suspended Francisco Aliansas, another member of the union’s board of directors, and Cesar Pagaling, president of the union’s supervisors’ chapter, for 15 days. The dismissal and suspensions followed the union’s participation in the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers’ Associations (IUF) Global Housekeepers Campaign.
The union had negotiated improvements in the collective agreement and better working conditions for housekeepers, and in 2015 secured unprecedented government inspections of working conditions at hotels. The Manila Peninsula was ordered to regularise 405 casual employees including 55 housekeepers at the hotel as a result.
Peninsula management resisted implementation of the order, and used the union’s participation in the global housekeeper campaign as a pretext to sack Jenny Marcos and to suspend her two colleagues. Management also supported a yellow union to challenge the National Union of Workers in Hotels, Restaurants and Allied Industries (NUWHRAIN) unions’ legal certification for collective bargaining. The company union was soundly defeated in an election on 30 January 2017, but management reneged on an agreement negotiated under government auspices which would have suspended rather than terminated Jenny Marcos and allowed NUWHRAIN to contest the disciplinary measures through the customary legal channels. The Department of Labour and Employment (DOLE) assumed final jurisdiction, and was due to impose a binding decision.