Workers of the National Food Authority (NFA) filed a petition before a regional trial court in Metro Manila, asking it to stop the agency’s reorganization which would cost them their jobs.

The NFA Employees Association (NFA-EA) accused the NFA of not consulting them properly over the job cuts, which had been expected when the rice tariffication law was implemented in 2019.

The law scrapped quantitative restrictions (QR) on rice in favor of higher tariffs, in a bid to tame skyrocketing prices of rice at that time. But it also effectively clipped the powers of the NFA, which regulated rice trade and collected fees under the QR regime.

With its tasks slashed to just keeping rice inventories and the like, the NFA moved to restructure its ranks and lay off over 1,000 of its employees.

The restructuring plan was created by Special Order AO-2020-08-006 last August and was approved earlier this September.

But workers said the management excluded them from discussions on the restructuring.

They also claimed the layoffs seemed to target high-ranking union officers, including NFA-EA national president Maximo Torda, national vice president Joewell Monreal, and National Capital Region chair Constancio Narito.

“The way the restructuring is being implemented severely weakens the ability of the union to check unfair and oppressive acts of NFA’s management,” the petition read.

They also argued that some positions were abolished even though the roles were not connected in any way to the functions removed by the rice tariffication law.

With the arguments raised, the NFA-EA urged the court to slap a temporary restraining order and writ of preliminary injunction against the NFA reorganization and render the move invalid.

The NFA has yet to release a statement on the union’s petition. – Rappler.com

Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this story said the petition was filed before the Supreme Court. This has been corrected to a regional trial court.