CHARM LANSANGAN 1

LABOR RELATIONS

ASSIGNMENT 1

INTRODUCTION

Labor Standards – minimum terms and conditions of

employment to which employees are legally entitled and

with which employers must comply.

Labor Relations – the interactions between employer and

employees or their representatives and the mechanism by

which the standards and other terms and conditions of

employment are negotiated, adjusted and enforced.

Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) :

Renegotiated not later than 3 year

Union representation stays undisturbed for 5 years

Grievance machinery – in-house problem-solving

structure

Voluntary Arbitrator – selected third party to resolve

parties’ differences

Compulsory Arbitration – the Secretary or even the

President may either “assume jurisdiction” or “certify” the

case to the NLRC; status quo is maintained.

Labor or Trade Union – combination of workmen

organized for the ultimate purpose of securing through

united action the most favorable conditions as regards

wages, hours of labor, conditions of employment, etc., for

its members

“Every labor union is a labor organization, but not every

labor organization is a labor union.”

Forces that led workers to organize:

1. Desire for job security

2. Employees wished to substitute what we should

term “the rule of law” for the arbitrary and often

capricious exercise of power by the boss

3. Unions helped to give employees a sense of

participation in the business enterprise of which

they are a part

Participatory or Consultative Management –

constitutional right of workers to participate in policy and

decision-making processes affecting their rights and

benefits as may be provided by law.

Elements of Employer-Employee Relationship:

1. Selection and Engagement of the employee

2. Payment of Wages

3. Power to Dismiss

4. Power to Control the employee’s conduct

Employee:

1. shall include any employee

2. and shall not be limited to the employee of any

particular employee, unless the Act explicitly

states otherwise

3. and shall include any individual:

a. whose work has ceased as a consequence

of, or in connection with, any current

labor dispute

b. and who has not obtained any

substantially equivalent and regular

employment

Employee – one who employs the services of others; one

for whom employees work and who pays their wages or

salaries; includes any person directly or indirectly acting in

the interest of an employer. It shall also refer to the

enterprise where a labor organization operates or seeks to

operate.

Labor Dispute – controversy or matter concerning terms

or conditions of employment or the association or

representation of persons in negotiating, fixing,

maintaining, changing or arranging the terms and

conditions of employment, regardless of whether the

disputants stand in the proximate relation of employer and

employee.

Kinds:

a. Labor Standards Disputes:

i. compensation

ii. benefits

iii. working conditions

b. Labor Relations Disputes:

i. Organizational Right Dispute/ ULP

ii. Representation Disputes

iii. Bargaining Disputes

iv. Contract Administration or Personnel

Policy Disputes

v. Employment Tenure Disputes

1. San Miguel Corporation Employees Union-PTGWO et al.

vs. Hon. Bersamira, Presiding Judge, and San Miguel

Corporation

- temporary, probationary or contractual employees and

workers are excluded = strike

- WON the controversy involved a labor dispute

- Yes, dwells on the working relationship between the said

employees vis-à-vis San Miguel.

Remedies in Labor Disputes:

1. Grievance Procedure – in-house adjustment of

complaint, problems, or dispute following the

steps prescribed in CBA or company policy

2. Enforcement or compliance order – act of the

Secretary of labor in the exercise of his visitorial

or administrative authority

3. Certification of Bargaining Representatives –

determination of which contending unions shall

represent employees in collective bargaining

4. Assumption of Jurisdiction – authority vested by

law to the Secretary of Labor or the President to

decide a dispute causing or likely to cause a strike

or lock out in an industry indispensible to national

interest.

5. Certification to NLRC – action of the Secretary of

Labor empowering NLRC to compulsory arbitrate

a dispute cause or likely to cause a strike or

lockout in an industry indispensible to nation

interest

a. Return-to-work order – issued to strikers;

at the same time the employer is ordered

to immediately resume operations and

readmit all workers under the same terms

and conditions prevailing before the

strike or lockout

6. Injunction – (extraordinary remedy) – to stop or

restrain an actual or threatened commission of

prohibited or unlawful acts or to require the

performance of an act, which if not restrained or

performed forthwith, may cause grave or

irreparable damage to any party or render

ineffectual any decision in favor of such party.

7. Judicial Action – complaint filed with regular

court.

8. Appeal – process by which an order, decision, or

award is elevated to a higher authority, on

specified grounds, so that the order, decision or

award may be modified or set aside and a new one

issued.

9. Review by Court – No law allows appeal from a

decision of the Secretary of labor, or of the NLRC,

or of a Voluntary Arbitrator. Petition for

Certiorari, Prohibition, or Mandamus (SC or CA)

for abuse of discretion or lack or excess of

jurisdiction

Alternative Dispute Resolution Methods:

a. Conciliation – efforts of a third party – someone

other than the immediate disputant – to assist the

parties to end their dispute perhaps by condoning

each other’s fault or finding a give-and-take

compromise.

b. Mediation – there is also a conciliation but a

mediator, within his authority, takes a more active

role than a conciliator in searching for and

formulating a solution

c. Arbitration – more determinative than the other

two but less formalistic or technical than litigation

NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS COMMISSION

- supervisory and adjudicatory body

- tripartite representation:

o Workers

o Employers

o Public Sectors

POWERS AND DUTIES OF LABOR ARBITERS

Arbitration – the reference of a dispute to an impartial

third person, chosen by the parties or appointed by

statutory authority to hear and decide the case in

controversy.

Compulsory Arbitration – process of settlement of labor

disputes by a government agency which has the authority

to investigate and to make an award which is binding on

all the parties.

Notes:

���� Proceedings on appeal before the NLRC cannot be

considered as part of the arbitration proceedings

���� LA’s Jurisidiction – employment-related cases.

2. Hawaiian Philippine Company vs. Gulmatico

- WON the complaint by sugar farm workers is within the

jurisdiction of the LA given that there is no employer-

employee relationship

� Worker’s Option re: Venue

3. Dayag vs. Canizares

- Employer wants to transfer the case to Cebu, from NCR

UNFAIR LABOR PRACTICE

- Any act intended or directed to weaken or defeat

the workers’ right to self-organize or to engage in

lawful concerted activities

4. National Union of Bank Employees vs. Judge Lazaro

- Due to a merger, the CBA was not renegotiated

- Union filed to the CFI

- Lack of jurisdiction – controversy is a ULP, despite the

tort

TERMINATION DISPUTES

- legality of dismissal

5. SMC vs. NLRC

- Dismissal of the ULP case would have been proper for

voluntary arbitration had the parties explicitly so agreed.

� LA jurisdiction on termination disputes applies to

all establishment whether for profit or not

� Dismissal of a corporate officer by a corporate

board is a corporate dispute that should be

brought to the SEC

6. Dy, et al. vs. NLRC

- New Board of Directors

- Election of new executive officers

- Controversy is intracorporate and is not a case of

dismissal – SEC jurisdiction

7. Mainland Construction vs. Movilla, et al.

- Movilla is an accountant who became a board member

and admin manager (stockholder-employee)

CHARM LANSANGAN 3

- was not included in the payroll

- who has jurisdiction? NLRC

- SEC to take cognizance of a case:

1. Between the corporation, partnership or association and

the public;

2. Between the corporation, partnership or association and

its stockholders, partners, members or officers;

3. Between the CPA and the State as far as its franchise,

permit or license to operate is concerned;

4. Among the stockholders, partners or associates

themselves

- Factors to be considered: (NLRC vs. SEC vs. RTCs)

1. Status or relationship of the parties or the

2. Nature of the Question that is the subject of the

controversy

3. Nature of the complainant’s work

4. Length of Service

5. Manner of Creation of the Office

8. Tabang vs. NLRC

- stockholder-corporate officer

- Corporate Officer – the president, secretary or treasurer

of the corporation or any other officer whose office is

created by the board of directors as authorized or required

by the corporate charter or by-laws

- Office – created by the charter of the corporation and the

officer is elected by the directors or stockholders

- Employee – occupies no office and generally is employed

not by action of the directors or stockholders but by the

managing officer of the corporation who also determines

the compensation to be paid to such employee

- Intra-corporate controversy – one which arises

between a stockholder and the corporation

MONEY CLAIMS

1. If the claim, regardless of amount, is accompanied

with a claim for reinstatement; or

2. If the claim, whether or not accompanied with a

claim for reinstatement, exceeds the five thousand

pesos per claimant

Exceptions: SSS, ECC, Medicare and kasambahay’s claims

(DOLE Regional Director)

� Limited only to those arising from statutes or

contracts OTHER THAN a CBA and those arising

from the interpretation or enforcement of

company personnel policies (Voluntary Arbitrator

or Panel of Voluntary Arbitrators)

� Money claims of workers – embraces money

claims which arise out of or in connection with the

employer-employee relationship or some aspect

or incident of such relationship

9. Pepsi-Cola Bottling Co. vs. Martinez

- “Sumakwel contest” – Lapu-lapu award

- refuse to deliver the prize – employment is in question

- he is an employee = NLRC

10. SMC vs. NLRC

- innovation program

- proposal and cash reward

- Where the claim to the principal relief sought is to be

resolved not by reference to the Labor Code or other

labor relations statute or a collective bargaining

agreement but by the general civil law, the jurisdiction

over the dispute belongs to the regular courts of justice

and not to the labor arbiter and the NLRC.

STRIKES AND LOCKOUTS

- strikeable

- strike procedure is followed

- strikers committed prohibited acts

Limits:

1. Injuction – only the NLRC division

2. Indispensable to national interest - DOLE

Secretary or President

3. Actions filed by third parties being affected by

strikers who are not their employees – Regular

Courts

OFW’S MONEY CLAIMS OR DISMISSAL

11. Philippine National Bank vs. Cabansag

- Employee pass in Singapore – dismissed

- Migrant Workers – a person who is to be engaged, is

engaged or has been engaged in a remunerated activity in

a state in which he or she is not a legal resident

WAGE DISTORTION

Resolutions:

1. CBA Mechanism

2. NCMB for unorganized establishments (if this fails

– appropriate branch of the NLRC)

POWERS AND DUTIES OF THE COMMISSION

Rule-Making: Promulgating rules and regulations –

1. Governing the hearing and disposition of cases

before it and its regional branches;

2. Pertaining to its internal functions; and

3. Those that may be necessary to carry out the

purposes of this Code

Power to Issue Compulsory Process:

1. Administer oaths;

2. Summon parties; and

3. Issue subpoenas ad testificandum and duces

tecum

Power to Investigate and Hear Disputes Within its

Jurisdiction:

1. Conduct investigations for the determination of a

question, matter or controversy within its

jurisdiction; and

2. Proceed to hear and determine the disputes in the

manner laid down under par. © of Article 225.

Contempt Power – disobedience to the Court by setting

up an opposition to its authority, justice and dignity.

Conduct Ocular Inspection

Adjudicatory Power (NLRC Division)

- Original: petitions for injunction or temporary

restraining order

- Appellate: decisions of Las and DOLE regional

directors; NOT: voluntary arbitrator, secretary of

labor, bureau of labor relations director on cases

appealed from the DOLE Regional Offices (CA)

Requisites for Issuance of Restraining Order or

Injunction:

a) a hearing held "after due and personal notice thereof

has been served, in such manner as the Commission shall

direct, to all known persons against whom relief is sought,

and also to the Chief Executive and other public officials of

the province or city within which the unlawful acts have

been threatened or committed charged with the duty to

protect complainant's property;"

b) reception at the hearing of "testimony of witnesses, with

opportunity for cross-examination, in support of the

allegations of a complaint made under oath," as well as

"testimony in opposition thereto, if offered . . .;

c) a finding of fact by the Commission, to the effect:

(1) That prohibited or unlawful acts have been

threatened and will be committed and will be

continued unless restrained, but no injunction or

temporary restraining order shall be issued on account

of any threat, prohibited or unlawful act, except against

the person or persons, association or organization

making the threat or committing the prohibited or

unlawful act or actually authorizing or ratifying the

same after actual knowledge thereof;

(2) That substantial and irreparable injury to

complainant's property will follow;

(3) That as to each item of relief to be granted, greater

injury will be inflicted upon complainant by the denial

of relief than will be inflicted upon defendants by the

granting of relief;

(4) That complainant has no adequate remedy at law;

and

(5) That the public officers charged with the duty to

protect complainant's property are unable or unwilling

to furnish adequate protection.

Conditions for Issuance Ex Parte of a TRO (valid only

for 20 days):

a) the complainant "shall also allege that, unless a

temporary restraining order shall be issued without notice,

a substantial and irreparable injury to complainant's

property will be unavoidable;

b) there is "testimony under oath, sufficient, if sustained, to

justify the Commission in issuing a temporary injunction

upon hearing after notice;"

c) the "complainant shall first file an undertaking with

adequate security in an amount to be fixed by the

Commission sufficient to recompense those enjoined for

any loss, expense or damage caused by the improvident or

erroneous issuance of such order or injunction, including

all reasonable costs, together with a reasonable attorney's

fee, and expense of defense against the order or against the

granting of any injunctive relief sought in the same

proceeding and subsequently denied by the Commission;"

and

d) the "temporary restraining order shall be effective for

no longer than twenty (20) days and shall become void at

the expiration of said twenty (20) days.

� Irreparable injury – if it is of such constant and

frequent recurrence that no fair and reasonable

redress can be had therefor in a court of law or where

there is no standard by which their amount can be

measured with reasonable accuracy, that is, it is not

susceptible of mathematical computation

� Public Officers – local law enforcing officers

� Protection – that which would enable the employer to

proceed with the work

� Adequate remedy at law – one that affords relief with

reference to the matter in controversy, and which is

appropriate to the particular circumstances of the

case

� Commission Attorney – to assist the Commission of

its divisions in their appellate and adjudicatory

functions

� Petition for injunction is not the way to halt an

employee’s dismissal

12. PAL vs. NLRC, et al.

- dismissal of 2 flight stewards for smuggling

- Power of the NLRC to issue an injunctive writ originates

from “any labor dispute”

- No labor dispute here