JOHN GOKONGWEI School of Management (JGSOM) Representative Mica Torres is reattempting to form an association for JGSOM Student Enterprise Center (JSEC) stall owners after the constitution failed to be ratified last year. 

According to former Sanggunian Commissioner for Student Entrepreneurship Carlos Campo (4 AB MEC), last school year’s JGSOM Sanggunian drafted a constitution for the establishment of the JSEC owners’ association. However, he said it failed to be ratified by the March target date due to a lack of consenting votes from past stall owners.

He further explained that “for the constitution to [be] binding, it needs to be ratified yearly.”

The owners’ association will not be a “policy-making body” but “a more formal avenue” to channel worker concerns to their respective owners. Should an issue require more assistance, workers’ concerns will be then forwarded to the JGSOM administration. 

Aside from this, Campo said the association is also supposed to hold monthly meetings where they can discuss problems and solve them accordingly.

Torres stated that she is planning to contact JSEC stall owners to discuss the votation by August. With this early start, she hopes that last year’s complications with calendaring will not be repeated.

Voting failure

According to Torres, the JSEC stall owners’ association has been in the works since the first semester of AY 2018-2019. Last year’s Fú Fighters Co-owner Mico Tan (4 BS LM) noted that progress began to slow down in the second semester.

Campo explained that in order for the association’s constitution to be ratified, majority rule of all JSEC stall owners needs to occur. However, out of the 32 stalls, only 16 voted and only 15 were considered valid. 12 were in favor of the association’s formation, three were against, while the one stall’s vote cancelled out since its two representatives cast different votes. 

Campo attributed this voting failure to a “lack of feasibility” to execute a proper votation since the academic year was coming to a close for the senior stall owners who were busy at the time the voting took place. 

Torres also considered that the approval of the association this year remains unsure prior to the next votation.

“In a macro perspective, there’s [still] no assurance that it would be passed this year, kasi it would be voted on and we need to get so many approvals. There’s a lock-in period for amending the constitution. Each year, it can be changed,” she said. 

Nonetheless, with the new set of stall owners, Torres is “optimistic” that these plans will finally push through this year as the JGSOM Sanggunian begins streamlining its communication efforts with the people involved.

“I really think they’re going to be willing to participate. There’s a new set of stall owners, and as much as possible, Sanggu is trying to really build communication,” she said.

According to Campo, the JGSOM administration has been very “adamant and hands-on” regarding the matter. He added that the constitution for the owners’ association has already been approved by the JGSOM administration.

For both owners and workers

Aside from strengthening partnerships between owners and workers, Torres claimed that the association would also be able to “tackle different problems as a collective.” 

Chińua Co-owner Seve Carlos (4 AB COM) emphasized the need for an association that will serve as an avenue towards solution-making between owners and employees. “People look at JSEC stalls to be money making machines, which is far from true. Its first and foremost goal is to be an incubator in handling real life business practices by experiencing them first hand.” 

“Starting from the ground up will inevitably bring some challenges with it, especially with figuring out the needed parameters. I believe this is something that is long overdue, especially since it would both protect the owners and the workers,” he said.

Tan also expressed the importance of having formal meetings—an opportunity for both parties involved to be thoroughly briefed on the association’s implications. 

According to Carlos, “abuse can come from both sides” since new stall owners are new to the JSEC’s management and set-up. 

“Usually employees know more because they know the set-up of JSEC more than the students because students are new to it. Students are very vulnerable. Anything can happen, so you need to really make sure you get both sides,” Tan said.

An added proposal 

Aside from pushing for the owners’ association, Torres talked about her proposed policy for an unconditional cash transfer plan. This system proposes to carry over the responsibility to pay for employee wages to the student body or the JGSOM administration. 

“It’s still being looked into since we’re planning to have a courtesy call with my team. It’s really a matter of consultation right now, if it would be beneficial in the long run,” she said. 

However, both Tan and Carlos are not in favor of the unconditional cash transfer plan, stating that the owners themselves should carry the responsibility of paying their employees.

“Since [each stall is] a legitimate business owned by the students, it would not make sense if the employees of the stall were paid by the administration since that is not under their jurisdiction,” Carlos said.

For Tan, paying employees was part of the “experience” in owning the stall: “What they could do [instead] is [to] standardize the payment because a lot of employees compare. You can’t blame them because some employees get more benefits than others,” he said.