A blockade by Swedish seafarers' and dockers' unions of a flag of convenience (FOC) ship in Söderhamn, Sweden has led to the signing of a contract for the 22 crew, mainly from the Philippines. Following the action on March 26, 2014 the German owner of the Liberia-flagged bulk carrier VogeFantas finally agreed to sign a collective agreement covering terms and conditions for the crew – the aim of the unions' solidarity action. The German shipowner has now signed an ITF collective bargaining agreement, valid for one year, setting out minimum terms and conditions for crew members, and agreed to a monthly salary of around USD3,000.

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An Android developer from Connecticut, Trevor Eckhart, has discovered a hidden tracking applicationon tens of millions of phones around the world that secretly records everything a user does, from sending &receiving text messages to creating passwords, log a user's every keystroke, every number dialed, every searchquery inputted, every website visited, and so on. This surveillance software is called Carrier IQ. It is similar to the shopper tracking program. In fact, it'sarguably worse since it follows you everywhere.

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TIDBITS :
G.R. No. 116354    December 4, 1997HEIRS OF THE LATE R/O REYNALDO ANIBAN vs. NLRC, PHILIPPINE TRANSMARINE CARRIERS,  INC., NORWEGIAN SHIP MANAGEMENT, INC. A/S, and PIONEER INSURANCE

On the award of attorney's fees which NLRC deleted on the ground that there was no unlawful withholding of wages, suffice it to say that Art. 111 of the Labor Code does not limit the award of attorney's fees to cases of unlawful withholding of wages only. What it explicitly prohibits is the award of attorney's fees which exceed 10% of the amount of wages recovered. Thus, under the circumstances, attorney's fees are recoverable for the services rendered by petitioner's counsel to compel Aniban's employer to pay its monetary obligations under the CBA. However the amount of P50,000.00 claimed as attorneys' fees in this case is the reasonable compensation based on the records and not the maximum 10% of the total award as granted by POEA. The reduction of unreasonable attorney's fees is within our regulatory powers. (Courtesy of Atty. Fidel Borja)