SANTA CRUZ, Laguna – Two union officers from the semiconductor giant Nexperia Philippines have been officially reinstated, according to a Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) decision released August 18.

DOLE said in its decision that Antonio Fajardo and Marvel Marquez were illegally dismissed. DOLE directed Nexperia to reinstate Fajardo and Marquez to their “previous positions … without loss of their seniority rights and other privileges.” Nexperia was also directed to pay the two officers back wages starting from March 10, 2025 up to the present, inclusive of other allowances and benefits.

Fajardo is vice president of the Nexperia Philippines Inc. Workers’ Union (NPIWU-NAFLU-KMU) while Marquez is a shop steward. Both were dismissed in December 2024 by Nexperia management while in the middle of Collective Bargaining Agreement negotiations, a move that the union decried as a case of “union busting.”

NPIWU welcomed the decision, calling it “another victory” for the March 2025 strike. “This decision is proof that victories can be gained through the solidarity of workers and one of our most effective weapons, the strike.”

The Center for Trade Union and Human Rights (CTUHR) also welcomed the DOLE decision “for upholding workers’ right to protest and other related labor rights.”

“The Nexperia workers were prudent in launching their protests and strike,” the group said in its statement. “They exhausted many other forms of protests and it was only after the company management refused to heed their legitimate demands that they held the strike.”

The decision to reinstate Fajardo and Marquez came after Nexperia workers staged a strike last March 2025 over a deadlock in CBA negotiations. At the time, Nexperia management was willing to give only a P17 daily wage increase, a far cry from the union’s demand of a P50 increase.

Nexperia management justified the low increase by citing the need to cut costs and protect profit margins. Nexperia also began laying off workers in 2024 during the CBA negotiations which the union called out as “an attempt to weaken the union’s bargaining power.”

In December 2024, Fajardo, Marquez, and two others were dismissed after NPIWU declared a CBA deadlock. Management justified the dismissal by claiming that the four officers “obstructed ingress and egress” of workers and disrupted production.

CTUHR noted that claims of blocking ingress and egress “have repeatedly been used to undermine workers’ right to protest and strike.” The group said that such accusations “[attack] workers’ right to collectively bargain which is crucial for improving the state of many labor rights.”

Nexperia workers went on strike on March 5, 2025 against the management’s refusal to budge from its offer of a P17 daily wage increase and their refusal to reinstate the four dismissed officers. The strike commenced even if DOLE imposed an Assumption of Jurisdiction order over the labor dispute in January 2025.

An Assumption of Jurisdiction mandates that the union stop any protest activity, including strikes, while the Office of the Secretariat intervenes in the dispute. CTUHR criticized this, stressing that this “runs counter to workers’ right to strike.”

“The injunction orders workers and the management to return to the status quo before the dispute, and workers who violate it may face dismissal and charges as well as the actions of state forces that may be deployed to the workplace,” the group said.

The strike lasted for three days and ended in concessions made by management to the union. At the end of the strike, management agreed to a wage increase of P50 spread over three years, as well as the immediate reinstatement of NPIWU President Mary Ann Castillo and Public Relations Officer Girlie Batad, among other concessions. For Fajardo and Marquez, their case had to be fought in DOLE’s arbitration process.

Despite the favorable decision, however, Fajardo said that they have to see if Nexperia management will honor the DOLE decision. “We’ll see next week if management allows us to report to work,” he said in an interview with Bulatlat. “There’s still a chance that management will file a motion for reconsideration and contest the ruling.”

Fajardo said that not having him and Marquez reporting for duty is “favorable” to management because “it weakens the union as a whole.” But he also said that refusing to let them work “will only force us to fight back.”

“It’ll definitely be trouble [for NXP management] if they block our right to work,” he said.

Kilusang Mayo Uno also noted that Nexperia’s CBA has yet to be signed by management because of management’s “attempts to revise some agreed-upon ground rules at the start of negotiations.” KMU said that Nexperia “continues to block” providing benefits that their workers should have received since 2024.

The group challenged Nexperia workers to “continue to hold onto our victory and resolutely advance our struggle for wages, benefits, and rights.” (DAA)

Author’s note: Exchange rate according to Bango Sentral ng Pilipinas is $1 is equivalent to P57.23.