A motorcycle manufacturing company has filed a Notice of Lockout against 289 of its employees for allegedly holding illegal strikes and boycotting company-sanctioned activities, which it described as a form of unfair labor practice.

In a counter-manifestation filed before the National Conciliation and Mediation Board (NCMB), the Kawasaki Motors Philippines Corp. said the illegal strike and boycott include company sportsfest and anniversary , and the mandatory overtime work to recover from losses.

The company said the incident involved three company sanctioned activities last year, which include the anniversary celebration last July 24 and Sportsfest last June 15 and the mandatory overtime to catch up on production which was announced last April 30 this year.

Lawyer John Bonifacio, legal counsel for the Kawasaki Motors Philippines Corp, said that what the 289 union workers did was a violation of the “No Strike/No Lockout” clause of the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) that both the union officials and management signed in 2022.

“Boycotting company sanctioned activities and violation of the ‘No Strike/No Lockout’ clause of the CBA constitute unfair labor practice on the part of the workers, which can be used as grounds for the filing of Notice of Lockout,” said Bonifacio.

The union workers have been demanding an 11.50 percent plus P50 increase in their salary, but Kawasaki Motors argued that it could only afford a five percent increase due to losses from the pandemic.

Bonifacio said the Kawasaki Motors has been negotiating with the union workers but the latter pushed through with their strike “despite constantly informing them that their demands are not within the financial capacity of the company.”

“We have exhausted all legal means possible to convince union workers to accept our offer and return to work, because they are disrupting operations, but to no avail,” said Bonifacio.