{"id":42656,"date":"2015-02-16T18:34:35","date_gmt":"2015-02-16T10:34:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=42656"},"modified":"2015-02-16T23:37:53","modified_gmt":"2015-02-16T15:37:53","slug":"gma-7-denies-unfair-labor-practice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2015\/02\/16\/gma-7-denies-unfair-labor-practice\/","title":{"rendered":"GMA-7 denies unfair labor practice"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"GMA<\/a>
GMA 7 building in Quezon City (panoramio.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA, Philippines \u2013 GMA-7, one of the biggest media conglomerates in the country, denies allegations of labor law violations in its talent system and says that the corporation is ready to defend itself should the House of Representatives probe on the matter.<\/p>\n

The Talents Association of GMA (TAG), together with Quezon City 6th District Representative Kit Belmonte and Gabriela party-list Representatives Emmi de Jesus and Luz Ilaga, has already filed House Resolution 1893 last year, urging the House to investigate into the network\u2019s practice of withholding regularization on its talents, retaining them as independent contractors instead.<\/p>\n

\u201cKung kameng mga journalist, pinagtatanggol namin \u2018yung mga karapatan ng ibang tao, \u2018di mas dapat din naming ipagtanggol \u2018yung mga karapatan namin.<\/em> (If we, as journalists, fight for the rights of other people, all the more should we fight for our rights),\u201d says TAG member Mike Manalaysay, who was the former Imbestigador associate producer and was a contractual worker in GMA-7 for twelve years.<\/p>\n

\u201cSobrang dedicated and passionate kami sa ginagawa namin. Pero \u2018yung GMA mukhang hindi \u2018yon pinapahalagahan.<\/em> (We are very much dedicated and passionate in what we do but GMA does not seem to give any importance on it),\u201d adds Chloe Garcera-Ben, who was a contractual worker in the network for almost 13 years.<\/p>\n

GMA-7 responds to alleged law violations, claiming that they did not observe any form of unfair labor practice.<\/p>\n

\u201cGMA Network respects the filing of the resolution by the House Members but maintains the position that its practice of engaging talents does not constitute any labor violation,\u201d says GMA-7 Vice President for Legal Affairs Lynn Delfin.<\/p>\n

\u201cShould the House proceed with its inquiry into the engagement of talents in the broadcast industry and require the participation of GMA, GMA will consider it an opportunity to clarify its position and to present proper context to such practice for the better understanding of our legislators,\u201d adds Delfin.<\/p>\n

Aside from performers such as actors, singers and dancers, also considered as talents are technical and creative runners behind news, public affairs and entertainment programs including executive producers, associate producers, segment producers, production coordinators, writers, transcribers, researchers, edit supervisors and crew members.<\/p>\n

Despite many years of exclusive service to GMA-7, a lot of these so-called talents remain as contractors and only a few are made regular employees, depriving many of employee benefits and security tenure.<\/p>\n

GMA-7, however, says that their talents \u2018knowingly, freely, willingly and voluntarily\u2019 sign fixed-term contracts. Talents are also able to negotiate their service fees and sometimes even receive twice or thrice the income of regular employees.<\/p>\n

With report from Cyra Moraleda<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA, Philippines \u2013 GMA-7, one of the biggest media conglomerates in the country, denies allegations of labor law violations in …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":42657,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,2,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","category-entertainment","category-news-ph","mauthors-philippine-canadian-inquirer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42656"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42656\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}