The Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE), manning agencies, and Filipino seamen’s organizations have agreed to establish a labor arbitration system with voluntary arbitration as an alternative mode of settling labor disputes in the maritime industry.

Acting DoLE Secretary Marianito Roque said he signed a memorandum of agreement with representatives of manning agencies’ associations and seamen’s unions providing for the creation of the Maritime Industry Labor Arbitration Council (MILA).

In a statement, Roque said the establishment of the MILA, an initiative of now Supreme Court Justice Arturo Brion, would ensure the rights and welfare of Filipino seafarers as well as address the concerns of stakeholders in the maritime industry. The stakeholders took cognizance of the need to develop expertise in maritime usages and practices in the voluntary arbitration system so as to fully give effect to arbitration clauses provided in the collective bargaining agreements entered into by various seafarer’s unions and standard contracts of Filipino seafarers, Roque said.

The acting secretary also said the parties agreed to constitute MILA as a tripartite body consisting of the executive director of the National Conciliation and Mediation Board as ex-officio chairperson and one member each from the manning and seafarer sectors. The council members will have a term of three years from the date of their designation. NCMB will serve as the council’s secretariat in the interim. Aside from promoting VA in the maritime industry, the council and the secretariat will also be tasked to formulate policies, programs, standards, qualifications, and manuals of procedures pertaining to MILA operations. They will also screen, accredit, admit, and train voluntary arbitrators.
Initially, however, the social partners will each submit a list of five nominees to the pool of maritime industry labor arbitrators, Roque said.

Brion also signed the agreement as witness during a simple ceremony at the Associated Marine Officers and Seamen’s Union (AMOSUP) Tuesday in Intramuros, Manila. The signatories from the manning agencies were Rodolfo Estampador of the Conference of Maritime Manning Association, Samuel Lim of the Filipino Association for Mariners Employment, Jose Albar Kato of the International Maritime Association of the Philippines, Eduardo Manese of the Philippine-Japan Manning Consultative Council, Vicente Miranda of the Philippine Association of Manning Agencies and Ship Managers Inc., Roy Alampay of the Filipino Ship Owners Association, and Felicito Dalaguete of the Philippine Association of Maritime Institutions.

Those from the seamen’s unions were Gregorio Oca of the Associated Marine Officers Seamen’s Union of the Philippines, Romeo Occena of the International Seamen’s Mutual Labor Association, Manuel Collado of the Mariners and Allied Transport Employees Union, German Pascua, Jr., of the Philippine Seamen’s Union, and Nelson Ramirez of the United Filipino Seafarers. Leoncio Sempio of the Marine Engine Officers Association of the Philippines and Jaime Aquino of the Philippine Maritime Voluntary Arbitrators Association also signed the agreement.