DLTB bus employees end strike

MANILA, Philippines – Striking employees of the Delmonte Land Transport Bus Co. Inc. (DLTB) are expected to return to work after reaching an agreement with the management. 

“In the interest of industrial peace and in order not to further jeopardize the commuting public, the DLTB management and its union reached an agreement to resume normal operations,” Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said yesterday. 

Under the agreement, the labor union will call off the strike while the management shall accept all striking employees, except those terminated prior to the strike, under the same terms and conditions before the work stoppage. 

Bello said the labor issues that led to the strike have yet to be settled. 

The strike paralyzed about 90 percent of the company’s bus operations in the Bicol region and Southern Tagalog during the Christmas holidays.

The DLTB has around 700 buses plying the Southern Tagalog route.

The employees went on strike to demand a salary increase, the release of their 13th month pay and a stop to alleged labor malpractice.

Bello assumed jurisdiction of the labor dispute to avert disruption of public transport during the holidays. 

Charges were earlier filed against six DLTB bus drivers in connection with the burning of five buses while employees were holding a rally in front of a terminal in Barangay Malinis in Lemery, Batangas on Dec. 29.

Albert Gabriel, Lloyd Ocares, Wilmar Caro, Arvin Soliven, Joselito Guevarra and Ernesto Villanueva Jr. were charged with destructive arson before the prosecutor’s office in Batangas City. Three other bus drivers who have yet to be identified were included in the charge sheet.