Labor Relations Reviewer Elah V. Definitions: Duty To Bargain Collectively
Labor Relations Reviewer Elah V. Definitions: Duty To Bargain Collectively
ELAH V.
Definitions:
-refers to the existence of CBA. Whre there is an existing CBA which has been duly registered, a
petition for CE may be filed, as already explained, only within the “freedom”period” which is the
last 60 days of the fifth year of the CBA.
Certification Election
Certification election is a process of determining through secret ballot the sole and exclusive
bargaining agent (SEBA) of all the employees in an appropriate bargaining unit for the purpose of
collective bargaining.
Consent Election
"Consent Election" means the election voluntarily agreed upon by the parties to determine the
issue of majority representation of all the workers in the appropriate collective bargaining unit.
Run-off Election
"Run-Off" refers to an election between the labor unions receiving the two (2) higher number of
voters when a certification election which provides for three (3) or more choices results in no choice
receiving a majority of the valid votes cast, where the total number of votes for all contending
unions is at least fifty percent (50%) of the number of votes cast.
Substitutionary Doctrine
Substitutionary doctrine refers to a principle in labor law which states that even during the
existence of a collective bargaining agreement executed between the employer and the employees
through their agent, the employees can change the said agent but the contract continues to bind
them up into its expiration date. According to the doctrine, the employees cannot revoke the validly
executed collective bargaining contract with their employer by the simple expedient of changing
their bargaining agent. In the event, the new agent must respect the earlier contract.
Labor Organization
means any union or association of employees in the private sector which exists in whole or in part
for the purpose of collective bargaining or for dealingwith employers concerning terms and
conditions of employment.
Union-busting
To interfere with, restrain or coerce employees in the exercise of their right to self-organization. ULP
Run-away shop
An industrial plant moved by its owners frgom one location to another to escape union labor
regulations, or state laws, but the term is also used to describe a plant removed to anew location in
order to discriminate against employees at the old plant because of their union activities.
Union Shop
Requires of union shop are: 1) the labor union must be the employee’s bargaining representative,
pursuant to the manner of designation or selection 2) the union shop arrangement must be entered
into by mutual agreement; and 3) the conditions of the union shop arrangement must be expressed
unequivocally in the labor contract.
Featherbedding
Is the name given to employee practices which create or spread employment by unnecessarily
maintaining or increasing the number of employees used, or the amount of time consumed, to work
on a particular job.
Boulwarism
making a proposal which is not subject to bargaining. In effect there was to be no bargaining and
the union was rendered ineffective or irrelevant. The company dealt with the union through the
employees rather than with the employees through the union.
Certification Election
Where a voluntary recognition did not or cannot happen, a union selection through election should
take place.
It serves as the official, reliable and democratic basis for the Bureau to determine and name the
union that shall represent the employees in bargaining with the employer.
Consent Election
Means an election voluntarily agreed upon by the contending unions, with or without the
intervention of the Department, to determine which union carries the majority of the workers in the
appropriate collective bargaining unit.
Where a petition for certification election had been filed, and upon the intercession of the Med-
Arbiter, the parties agreed to hold a consent election, the results shall constitute a bar to the
holding of a certification election for one year from the holding of such consent election.
Bystander Rule
In bystander rule in certification election, the employer is regarded as nothing more than a
bystander with no right to interfere at all in the election, the same being the sole concern of the
workers.
Bargaining impasse
- exists when good faith bargaining on the part of the parties has failed to resolve the issue and there
are no definite plans for further efforts to break deadlock.
Surface Bargaining
- defined as “going through the motions of negotiating without any legal intent to reach agreement.
- Repeated shifts in position and attitude on the part of an employer whenever a tentative agreement
is reached are evidence of a refusal to bargain collectively in good faith.
Hold-over Rule
It is a rule which declares that in the absence of an express or implied constitutional or statutory
provisions prohibiting hold-over, an officer is entitled to hold office until his successor is appointed
and qualified. This rule prevents disruption of public service in the meantime that a successor is not
yet appointed and qualified to assume the functions of the office.
Title Principle
Austria It does not matter that the employer here is a religious sect and that it was
V organized not for profit because the LC applies to all establishments whether
NLRC for profit or not.
Reason: The doctrine that the State shall afford full protection to labor.
Pepsi-cola Bottling Co. The claim for said prize unquestionably arose from an ER_EE realtion and,
V therefore, falls within the coverage of Art. 217 (224) of the LC which speaks
Martinez of “all the claims arising frgom EE-ER relations, unless expressly excluded by
this Court.
Hagonoy Water district Local water districts are quasi-public corporations whose employees belong
V to the civil service; hence, the dismissal of those employees shall be
NLRC governed by the civil service law, rules and regulations.
Ang Tibay v CIR The cardinal primary rights for Administrative proceedings:
1. Right to a hearing
2. Tribunal must consider the evidence presented
3. Decision must be supported by something
4. Supporting evidence must be substantial
5. Decision must be rendered on the evidence presented
6. Judges must act on his own independent consideration of the law and
facts
7. Decide in manner that parties can know the various issues involved
and the reason for the decision.
St. Martin Funeral 1. The way to review NLRC decisions is through the special civil action of
Homes v. NLRC certiorari under Rule 65
2. The jurisdiction over such action belongs to both the SC and the CA
3. In line with the doctrine on hierarchy of courts, the petition should be
initially presented to the lower of the two courts, that is, the court of
Appeals.
Progressive A local or chapter therefore becomes a LLO only upon submission of the
Development Corp. v following to the BLR:
DOLE
1. A charter certificate, within 30 days from its issuance by the labor
federation or national union
2. The constitution and by-laws, a statement on the set of officers, and the
books of accounts all of which are certified under oath by the secretary or
treasurer, as the case may be, of such local or chapter, and attested to by its
president.
USTFU V. Dir. Bitonio of In a certification election, all employees belonging to the appropriate
BLR bargaining unit can vote. Therefore, a union member who likewise belongs to
the appropriate bargaining unit is entitled to vote in said election. However,
the reverse is not always true; an employee belonging to the appropriate
bargaining unit but who is not a member of the union cannot vote in the
union election, unless otherwise authorized by the constitution and bylaws of
the union. Verily, union affairs and elections cannot be decided in a non-
union activity.
ALEX FERRER vs. In the implementation of the provisions of the CBA, both parties thereto
NATIONAL LABOR should see to it that no right is violated or impaired.
RELATIONS
COMMISSION Parenthetically, the right of a local union to disaffiliate from a federation in
the absence of any provision in the federation's constitution preventing
disaffiliation of a local union is legal.
PHILIPPINE DIAMOND Article 255 of the Labor Code provides: EXCLUSIVE BARGAINING
HOTEL AND RESORT, REPRESENTATION AND WORKERS PARTICIPATION IN POLICY AND DECISION-
INC. (MANILA MAKING: The labor organization designated or selected by the majority of the
DIAMOND HOTEL) employees in an appropriate collective bargaining unit shall be
versus MANILA the exclusive representative of the employees in such unit for the purpose of
DIAMOND HOTEL collective bargaining. However, an individual employee or group of
EMPLOYEES UNION employees shall have the right at any time to present grievances to their
employer.XXXXXX
UNITED PEPSI-COLA To qualify as managerial employee, there must be a clear showing of the
SUPERVISORY UNION exercise of managerial attributes under paragraph (m), Article 212 of the
(UPSU) vs. HON. Labor Code as amended. Designations or titles of positions are not
BIENVENIDO E. controlling. In the instant case, nothing on record will support the claim that
LAGUESMA the quality control manager, yard/transport manager and warehouse
operations manager are vested with said attributes.xxx
In the case of Art. 245, there is a rational basis for prohibiting managerial
employees from forming or joining labor organizations.
In Bulletin Publishing Co., Inc. v. Hon. Augusto Sanchez, this Court
elaborated on this rationale, thus:
. . . The rationale for this inhibition has been stated to be, because if these
managerial employees would belong to or be affiliated with a Union, the
latter might not be assured of their loyalty to the Union in view of evident
conflict of interests. The Union can also become company-dominated with
the presence of managerial employees in Union membership.
METROLAB Although Article 245 of the Labor Code limits the ineligibility to join, form and
INDUSTRIES, INC. assist any labor organization to managerial employees, jurisprudence has
vs. HONORABLE MA. extended this prohibition to confidential employees or those who by reason
NIEVES ROLDAN- of their positions or nature of work are required to assist or act in a fiduciary
CONFESOR manner to managerial employees and hence, are likewise privy to sensitive
and highly confidential records.
In dismissing the charge of unfair labor practice, the CIR found that the
alleged discriminatory acts against the petitioner did not arise from union
membership or activity because he was not in fact a union member.
THE INSULAR LIFE Although the union is on strike, the employer is still under obligation to
ASSURANCE CO., LTD., bargain with the union as the employees’ bargaining representative.
EMPLOYEES
ASSOCIATION-NATU Individual solicitation of the employees or visiting their homes, with the
V employer or his representative urging the employees to cease union activity
THE INSULAR LIFE or cease striking, constitutes unfair labor practice. All the above-detailed
ASSURANCE CO., LTD., activities are unfair labor practices because they tend to undermine the
concerted activity of the employees, an activity to which they are entitled
free from the employer’s molestation.
LIBERTY FLOUR MILLS There is no question that these purposes could be thwarted if every
EMPLOYEES, vs. worker were to choose to go his own separate way instead of joining
LIBERTY FLOUR MILLS, his co-employees in planning collective action and presenting a
INC. PHILIPPINE LABOR united front when they sit down to bargain with their employers. It
ALLIANCE COUNCIL is for this reason that the law has sanctioned stipulations for the union shop
(PLAC) and the closed shop as a means of encouraging the workers to join and
support the labor union of their own choice as their representative in the
negotiation of their demands and the protection of their interest vis-a-vis the
employer.
Mabeza v. NLRC, Peter Having this in mind, loss of confidence should ideally apply only to cases
Ng/Hotel Supreme involving employees occupying positions of trust and confidence or to those
situations where the employee is routinely charged with the care and
custody of the employer's money or property. To the first class belong
managerial employees, i.e., those vested with the powers or prerogatives to
lay down management policies and/or to hire, transfer, suspend, lay-off,
recall, discharge, assign or discipline employees or effectively recommend
such managerial actions; and to the second class belong cashiers, auditors,
property custodians, etc., or those who, in the normal and routine exercise of
their functions, regularly handle significant amounts of money or property.
Victorias Milling Co., v. Another reason for enforcing the closed-shop is the principle of sanctity or
Victorias-Manapla inviolability of contracts guaranteed by the Constitution. As a matter of
Organization-PAFLU principle the provision of the Industrial Peace Act granting freedom to
employees to organize themselves and select representative for entering
into a bargaining agreement should be subordinated to the constitutional
provision protecting the sanctity of contracts. We cannot conceive how
freedom to contract, which should be allowed to exercise without limitation,
may be subordinated to freedom of laborers to choose the organization they
desire to represent them. And even if the legislature had intended to do so
and made such freedom of the laborer paramount to the sanctity of
obligation of contracts, such attempt to override the constitutional provision
would necessarily and ipso facto be null and void.
(3) a demand to bargain under Article 251, par. (a) of the New Labor
Code . ... all of which preconditions are undisputedly present in the instant
case.
Indophil Textile Mill in the case of Diatagon Labor Federation Local 110 of the ULGWP
Workers Union-PTGWO v. Ople (supra) that it is grave abuse of discretion to treat two companies as
vs. Voluntary a single bargaining unit when these companies are indubitably distinct
Arbitrator Teodorico P. entities with separate juridical personalities.
Calica and Indophil
Textile Mills, Inc.,
ALU V FERRER-CALLEJA The petition for CE doThe petition for CE does not bar the employer and the
incumbent union from renegotiating and renewing the expiring CBA. In other
words, a CBA may be renegotiated before, during, or after the 60-day
freedom period.But if during such period a PCE is filed, the Med-Arbiter can
order the suspension of the renegotiation until the representation
proceedings finally end.
... Basic to the contract bar rule is the proposition that the delay of the right
to select representatives can be justified only where stability is deemed
paramount. Excepted from the contract which do not foster industrial
stability, such as contracts where the identity of the representative is in
doubt. Any stability derived from such contracts must be subordinated to the
employees' freedom of choice because it does not establish the type of
industrial peace contemplated by the law.
CAPITOL MEDICAL Section 3, Rule V, Book V Of the Rules Implementing the Labor Code where a
CENTER OF certification election should be conducted, viz: (1) that one year had lapsed
CONCERNED since the issuance of a final certification result; and (2) that there is no
EMPLOYEES-UNIFIED bargaining deadlock to which the incumbent or certified bargaining agent is
FILIPINO SERVICE a party has been submitted to conciliation or arbitration, or had become the
WORKERS, (CMC-ACE- subject of a valid notice of strike or lockout, are present in this case.
UFSW),
vs. There is deadlock when there is a complete blocking or stoppage resulting
HON. BIENVENIDO E. from the action of equal and opposed forcesxxx. The word is synonymous
LAGUESMA, with the word impasse, whichxxx ‘presupposes reasonable effort at good
faith bargaining which, despite noble intentions, does not conclude in
agreement between the parties.’