13 companies vying for ECoP's Kapatid Awards

MANILA, Philippines - A total of 13 companies are vying for this year's grand Kapatiran sa Industriya (KAPATID) Awards and four citations covering the areas of industrial peace and harmony, quality and productivity, social accountability, and strategic visioning and partnering.

The Kapatiran sa Industriya or KAPATID Awards, is a recognition activity of the Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP) conducted every two years that coincides with the staging of the National Conference of Employers. It was launched in 1995 based on a concept developed by then ECOP Vice President and now ECOP Chairman Miguel B. Varela.

Initially, the KAPATID Awards recognize the fruitful and beneficial outcome of good and harmonious relationship, through partnership, of management and workers.

Over the years, the KAPATID Awards evolved into a comprehensive search for best workplace policies and programs highlighted by industrial peace and harmony and characterized by quality and productivity, social accountability, and strategic visioning and partnering.

With the vision of commending enterprises with sound and harmonious management and worker relationship, companies' practices are judged based on the characterization of enterprise level cooperation for better labor relations; product and service quality and improved productivity; enhanced relationship with workers, their families, and the society; and the ability of the enterprise to foresee future economic and socio-political changes through long-term planning and sustainability.

Among the firms eyeing the coveted KAPATID Awards are Nestle Philippines , Toyota Motor Phils., SM Retail, Bridgestone Precision, Amkor Technology, AGC Flat Glass Phils., Inc., HEDCOR, ADD Research Paints and Chemicals, Inc., IBM Philippines, Dole Philippines, RCM Manufacturing, Inc. Tagum Agricultural Development Company, Inc., and Absolute Service, Inc., For this year, the KAPATID Awards Executive Committee is chaired by lawyer Rene Y. Soriano who is ECOP Honorary President. The search has become more purposive and systematic as the Executive Committee, which conducts the Executive Screening of all nominees, have been divided to represent each criteria, and carefully scrutinize the policies and programs of the companies.

The KAPATID Board of Judges is composed of experts in their respective fields, and came from different sectors of society particularly in business and management, government, organized labor, and the international community. The panel of judges is composed of : Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz, ILO-Manila Director Lawrence Jeff Johnson, Dean Jorge Sibal of UP-School of Labor and Industrial Relations, and David Balangue from the private sector.