Labor NGO Center for Trade Union and Human Rights (CTUHR) is observing closely the workers’ strike, which started more than a month ago, in FOC Transportation Corporation, a company whose buses ply the Lucena-Infanta route in Quezon province. We are calling on the FOC Transportation Corporation to propose a better separation package for workers.

The FOC Transportation Corporation is set to close its operations, citing bankruptcy, as only nine (9) of its buses now ply their route. The company management and the workers, represented by the United Rank and File Association of FOC Transportation Corp – which is affiliated with national labor center Federation of Free Workers or FFW – have been engaged in negotiations on workers’ separation pay before the National Conciliation and Mediation Board or NCMB since January 2025.

The bus drivers and workers argue that they were forced to hold a strike because the company management refused to bargain with them in earnest and to provide them with an acceptable separation package. The company argues that it has attended all dialogues organized by the NCMB and has even agreed to a package that is higher than the legally-mandated one of 13 days per year of service – offering 15 days plus PhP 5,000 cash assistance.

The workers decried the grave coercion and illegal strike cases filed by the company management. The management meanwhile decried the workers’ supposed refusal to bargain and decision to hold a strike.

Beyond the war of words on social media and in the picketline, the bone of contention is the separation package that the workers will receive. We in CTUHR certainly hope that the FOC Transportation Corporation can make an offer that is acceptable to workers who will lose their jobs whose work created the company’s profits for years.

Apart from workers’ right to hold a strike, at issue here is the workers’ right to protection against unemployment, which is guaranteed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. These should be upheld as much as possible by the FOC Transportation Corporation, even as it faces bankruptcy and reduced income.

The workers of FOC Transportation Corporation are adamantly demanding a bigger separation package and are holding a strike also because the Philippine government does not really uphold workers’ right to protection from unemployment, in terms of providing social service benefits to the unemployed. We call on the government to further improve social protection for workers and the unemployed.

We also call on the government to ensure assistance to small companies like FOC Transportation Corporation that are closing down because of bankruptcy.