BY ERWIN ‘AMBO’ DELILAN
THE CONTINUED “hypocrisy” on the part of the Bacolod City Water District (BACIWA) management to reinstate their 60 terminated workers despite the Civil Service Commission’s (CSC) order puts its corporate conscience under attack.
It is also tantamount to culturing business “amoebae” capable of causing “metastatic infection” on the “morals” of the water firm.
How and why?
BACIWA’s 25-year Joint Venture Agreement (JVA) with Prime Water Infrastructure Corp. (Prime Water) remains controversial. Such is turning one year old this coming November. However, it is (still) being scrutinized by the Commission on Audit (COA) as to its noble intentions, so let’s wait for the official finding(s) and recommendation(s).
Discussing it sans legal and technical “know-how” due to an unavailable fact sheets is just like a “go for broke”. It is as if I am suffering from “myocardial infarction” every time I read Facebook (FB) posts regarding the plight of the “luckless” BACIWA workers.
On record, the CSC in Region VI had already ruled in August that these workers were, indeed, illegally terminated. Thus, they should be reinstated to their respective original posts as soon as possible.
But instead of heeding the CSC, the BACIWA management appealed the decision at the CSC-Main in Manila through a motion for reconsideration (MR). In short, there will be another episode of “waiting game” for BACIWA workers to endure. As to when this will be resolved, no one can ever predict. However, each day of this “waiting game” connotes extreme emotional, psychological and financial struggles for the concerned workers and their families.
To have a deeper grasp of the situation, I sit down with some of them. I’ve attentively listened to their “whining”. Read their varied facial expressions. And I really tried to decode their “suppressed” emotions. Then, I asked myself: Does BACIWA have a corporate conscience? If not, then, I am pretty sure Prime Water, being one of the subsidiaries of the Villar-led business conglomerate, has an ample knowledge about this corporate conscience.
SENSE OF RIGHT AND WRONG
Corporate conscience is the sense of right and wrong as demonstrated through action(s) of a company, its leadership, its employees and its processes and procedures.
It is also a mechanism designed for business entities – large or small – aimed at taking care of their brand imaging. Above all, it serves as a bridge to cure the gap between the management’s and employees’ engagements.
To effectively possess this corporate conscience, most companies have their respective Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) division or section. Via CSR activities, programs and projects, this corporate conscience is boldly manifested. To simplify everything, this corporate conscience reflects the company’s heart and soul towards its stakeholders, including the embedded workers. Hence, corporate conscience is truly beyond business profit – it is the morality of the company rather.
American historical nautical novelist James Nelson stressed that corporate conscience will provide a more fruitful path leading to systematic solution(s) to any corporate scandal. Likewise, modern businesses (really) need an infusion of morality through corporate conscience, Nelson insisted. (To be continued)/PN
