Mandaue City activates dispute resolution center

THREE years after it was passed into law, the Mandaue City government activated yesterday its Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Center, which aims to assist the National Conciliation and Mediation Board (NCMB) and the Department of Labor in settling labor disputes in the Mandaue City area.

The ADR Center was created after the ordinance sponsored by Councilor Elstone Dabon was approved on Oct. 8, 2014. The center was built to provide friendly, accessible, available, economical and impartial service to the growing number of workers and employers in the city.

It is an initiative of the Tripartite Industrial Peace Council (TIPC) spearheaded by Mandaue City, which is a first in the country. The TIPC will involve representatives from the private sector and labor department.

Gemma Poloyapoy, regional NCMB officer in charge, said the concept is anchored on the principle that industrial peace and harmony is everybody’s concern and responsibility.

Poloyapoy said a local government unit is in the best position to spearhead this objective in its locality.

This is designed to sustain the gains and achievements of Mandaue City in the area of labor-management relations.

The Mandaue ADR Center will be manned by Mandaue City government through the TIPC Mandaue.

The center, however, cannot handle liveable issues, notices of strike and other complicated issues and should be referred to the NCMB. Labor disputes reported to NCMB from Mandaue area will be given an option whether to transfer it to Mandaue ADR for easy access or retain it in NCMB.

Poloyapoy added that Mandaue has about 40 percent of the total labor disputes they have at NCMB, and they have around 96 percent disposition of these cases based on last year’s data.