Dispute Settlement Mechanisms in the Labor CodeThe Constitution is very clear in its wording that it favors the use of voluntary methods in settling labor disputes. Hence, incorporated in the Labor Code enshrined in Article 211 is the promotion and emphasis on the use of voluntary arbitration, mediation and conciliation, as modes of settling labor or industrial disputes. There are three ways of resolving labor disputeson top is the compulsory arbitration, followed by the conciliation mediation and the alternative dispute resolution. These dispute settlement mechanisms are provided under Articles 260 to 262. However, many a number of studies and researches revealed that this is only true in theory and never in practice. Perusal of the system manifest that the countrys approach is adversarial and litigious in nature. At the plant level, the country is still crippled by the problem that workers and employers tend to rely on litigation and third party dispute resolution rather than settling their own differences. And, at the national level, the defining characteristic of industrial relation system of the country is its adversarial nature. At present, the policy on labor dispute settlement system in the Philippines is incongruent to the characteristically-eastern culture of mutual trust and collaboration, or the Filipino way of responding to the problems. When disputes happen at the plant level, ideally, the two parties involved (worker and employer) settled their own disputes. However, when the parties have already exhausted the plant level grievance machinery but have not reached an agreement, they seek the assistance of a third party to settle their dispute. The government usually plays the role of third party intervenor, as part of its role under the police power of the State. On part of the government, the Department of Labor and Employment is mandated to prevent and settle labor disputes as a guardian of industrial peace.

President Aquino, finding out this present state of the labor sector, in his SONA, directed the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to reform the labor arbitration and adjudication system. The Department launched a new program to make dispute settlement system fast, simple, least costly and beneficial to both parties. This new program is called, Single Entry Approach (SENA), which took effect on October 20, 2010. The Single Entry Approach (SEnA) Program is an administrative approach to provide a speedy, impartial, inexpensive and accessible settlement procedure for all issues/complaints arising from employer-employee relations to prevent them from escalating into full blown disputes. Under this approach, all labor and employment disputes shall undergo a 30-day mandatory conciliation-mediation process to effect settlement among the contending parties. After SEnA took effect on 26 October 2010 and from the time of its implementation, a total of 50,577 RFAs had been filed in the DOLE Regional Offices and its Attached Agencies as of June 2012. 24,533 of these RFAs were settled garnering a total of Php 1,214,920,484.07 in monetary benefits with 36,767 workers covered.

In just two years of implementation, because of its efficacy in settling requests for assistance, the Congress has enacted R.A. 10396 institutionalizing conciliation-mediation as a mandatory mode of dispute settlement for all labor cases. President Aquino III signed it into law on 14 March 2013. Republic Act No. 10396, or the Mandatory Conciliation-Mediation Law, provides that all issues arising from labor and employment shall be subject to mandatory conciliation-mediation. Only cases and complaints that are not resolved at the mandatory conciliation-mediation stage will be elevated to compulsory arbitration, or to the appropriate DOLE office, upon endorsement by the duly authorized officer. The act also provides that any or both parties involved in the dispute may pre-terminate the conciliation-mediation proceedings and request referral or endorsement to the appropriate DOLE agency or office. Both parties may also agree to refer the unresolved issues to voluntary arbitration.

In todays market, the firms undergo functional and numerical flexibility to compete to the world market. As the firms try to metamorphose to the new trend of global market, labor disputes at the local level increases. Hence, the government move in strengthening the conciliation-mediation as voluntary mode of dispute settlement for all labor cases is a smart move with great potential in resolving labor disputes in the country, it being a non-litigious, non-adversarial, less expensive and expeditious mechanism in assisting the parties towards voluntarily reaching their own mutually acceptable settlement to the labor dispute. Under this informal set-up, the parties find it more expedient to fully ventilate their respective positions without running around with legal technicalities and, in the course thereof, afford them wider latitude of possible approaches to the problem. Moreover, conciliation-mediation maybe considered as an impartial dispute settlement procedure as disputes are settled through parties mutually-agreed arrangements that came into existence as a result of painstaking efforts among the union, management, and the Conciliator-Mediator. In this regard, the parties are bound to honor any agreement entered into by them. It is in sync to the culture of mutual trust and collaboration or of the Filipino way of responding to the problems since it involves open dialogue and mutual agreement way of settlement. The statistics also speak for themselves. Since the implementation of SEnA, the Regional Offices skillfully use conciliation-mediation to prevent labor disputes from escalating into labor cases. The number of unsettled Requests for Assistance (RFAs) being referred to NLRC decreased by 57.1% from 2,724 in the first semester of 2011 to 1,168 in the first semester of 2012. The NLRC had a 6.5% decrease in the number of cases filed before its office since SEnA was implemented from 32,958 in 2010 to 30,812 in 2011. For the first semester of 2012, there are a total of 15,657 cases filed before the office.In this regard, I am of the opinion that the method of dispute settlement must be restructured in such a way that alternative dispute resolution must be placed on top, followed by the conciliation-mediation and only in limited cases shall there be compulsory arbitration. National Conciliation and Mediation Board (NCMB) plays a major role at the base and apex of the tiers in DOLE dispute settlement. At the base are the alternative dispute resolution (ADR) programs or the dispute prevention approaches, like labor management education on employment relations; promotion of pro-active social dialogue bipartite, tripartite and tripartite plus; workplace based labor dispute settlement mechanisms; conciliation-mediation; voluntary arbitration; and Administrative Intervention for Dispute Avoidance (AIDA). The move of the President in signing the new law is a great start in implementing the change the government wanted to enforce. In the first place, this law only materializes the true spirit of the lawthat is, labor dispute must be resolved through voluntary arbitration and not otherwise and that the labor law is more leaning to the welfare of the laborers. In line with this, it is expected from the government to invest heavily and to direct their funds with the NCMB and the SEnA in order to sustain the potential increase in solving labor disputes through the ADR and conciliation mediation.