The Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP) was born on September 10, 1975 when the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved its Articles of Incorporation and By-Laws. It gained official status as the umbrella organization and a single voice for the entire business community, on important national issues related to employment, industrial relations, labor issues and related social policies.

A year before, in May 1, 1974, President Ferdinand Marcos promulgated the Labor Code of the Philippines [Presidential Decree 442], which adopted tripartism as a state policy in industrial relations. The creation of ECOP made tripartism a reality, with the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) representing the labor sector, and the Department of Labor and Employment and the other agencies as the state instrumentality.

Before ECOP, the business sector and employers in the country were represented by two major business organizations, namely: the Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (CCP); and the Philippine Chamber of Industries (PCI). The CCP had pre-eminence as it was organized way before the PCI. Both chambers had their own Committees on Labor and Employment. The leaders of both the CCP and the PCI decided to coordinate their activities and positions, through joint meetings and consultations, with one voice on labor-related national issues with an impact on business and industry. At that time, tripartite consultations were already being held by the government on the proposed Labor Code of the Philippines, being prepared for promulgation as a presidential decree. After an ILO conference in Geneva, both the PCI and the CCP leaders observed that while the country’s organized labor remained fragmented with various labor centers and federations, they are united on basic labor and social issues. There was unity among labor leaders in issues raised in the international ILO conference and in national meetings — particularly in demands for increases in legislated minimum wage rates, and the restoration of the right to strike, suspended by martial law in 1972. The leaders of the CCP and the PCI approved the recommendations of the two labor committees to work together in presenting position papers in tripartite conferences, particularly those on demands for wage increases, and the proposed Labor Code. It was in one of these conferences that Blas F. Ople, the secretary of the labor department, encouraged the employers’ organizations to unite and form a consolidated employers’ confederation. The two chambers formed a national organizing committee, with other employer and management representatives invited as members. The committee members formed themselves into a Charter of Founding Members. Mr. Fred J. Elizalde was elected as the first president of ECOP.

On 1 May 1978 the government, through Presidential Letter of Instruction (LOI) 688 recognized ECOP as the single voice of employers, to be consulted by the government, together with labor, in the promulgation of a scheme which would promote and sustain an adequate machinery for cooperation between labor and management at appropriate levels of the enterprise. The president’s letter of instruction specified that the machinery should focus on matters of common interest to workers and employers, which are not usually the subject of collective bargaining, for broader labor-management cooperation.

As a confederation, ECOP started from the few existing employers’ organizations at that time, with no membership base of its own. Due to this weakness, it was unable to raise resources to implement programs and projects. ECOP could not even pay its membership dues to the International Organization of Employers (IOE). In 1980, a consultative mission from the ILO and IOE suggested the integration of ECOP into another umbrella organization. In response, ECOP reshaped and restructured itself into an independent and strong organization.

Since then, ECOP became more visible through its public position papers, providing timely and relevant insights on socio-economic issues, and initiating new ideas about social or labor policy. Seeing the benefits of having a stronger and united employers’ voice in related concerns, foreign chambers of commerce and the major industry associations found it necessary to join ECOP in lobbying for relevant issues in labor, employment, industrial relations, and economy.