Today, June 30, marks exactly ten years since GMA Network terminated over 10 valued and senior talents of GMA News and Public Affairs, a direct repercussion of their involvement in what has now been a decade-long fight for the labor rights of media workers in and out of the broadcast giant.
The journey of the Talents Association of GMA Network (TAG) has been painful, resulting in the loss of livelihood for many of us, but it’s also taken us to the cusp of a potentially precedent-setting decision that could benefit the next generation of Filipino media workers.
We urge the Supreme Court to expedite the decision of our case pending before them since January 2020 or for five years.
There is no better way for the Court to stand for freedom of expression than to act expeditiously on an issue that plagues not just TAG, but all Filipino media workers who guard the truth.
TAG was formed in 2014 as the talents’ response to a new tax policy where the network treated them as mere service providers, and not workers who have loyally and faithfully served GMA News and Public Affairs as its producers, writers, editors, researchers, videographers, and production assistants – some of them are behind the award-winning shows that made GMA News and Public Affairs the respectable institution that it is today.
TAG are talents who have been working exclusively for the network for years on end, yet are not subject to regularization, deprived of statutory benefits.
In June 2014, over 100 TAG members filed a labor case against GMA Network in batches, arguing that we were performing essential, full-time roles that made us de facto regular employees.
On June 22, 2015, a labor arbiter of the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC) declared us “undoubtedly employees of GMA.”
We have won in all succeeding venues as GMA Network fought earnestly to deprive us our due rights, and time and time again, we won. We won in the NLRC proper, we won in the Court of Appeals. Having lost in all stages, GMA Network elevated the case to the Supreme Court in January 2020 still denying that we are regular employees.
It’s been five years since we reached the final stage, the court of last resort, and through it all TAG has individually and collectively persevered even in the face of added external threats such as attacks on the media, shutdowns and layoffs.
The Philippine media faces an existential crisis, not least of which is job insecurity at a time where truth is very sacred, but comes very cheap.
The Philippine Daily Inquirer, the paper of record, is closing today, and over a hundred of our colleagues also lose their jobs.
We stand with them, and all Filipino media workers, but we cannot be left alone in this generational fight. We need justice on our side.
We call on the Supreme Court to perform their duty and simply resolve this case.
Para sa bayan. Serbisyong Totoo Lamang.#
