Metrolab Industries, Inc. vs. Hon.

Nieves Roldan-Confesor and Metro Drug Corp

Employees Assn.-FFW, G.R. No. 108855, February 28, 1996 —

Facts: Metro Drug Corporation Employees Association-Federation of Free Workers

(the Union) represents the rank-and-file employees of petitioner Metrolab Industries,
Inc. (Metrolab/Mil) and of Metro Drug, Inc. When the CBA between Metrolab and the
Union expired, negotiations for a new CBA started, but was caught in a deadlock. The
Union filed a notice of strike. The Secretary of Labor took over the dispute, enjoined
the strike, and directed the parties to submit their position papers and evidence on the
deadlocked issues. Subsequently, the Secretary resolved all disputed items in the CBA
and ordered the parties to execute a new CBA. But Metrolab laid off 167 rank- and-file
employees on ground of redundancy due to lack of work, which dismissal the new
Secretary of Labor nullified. She also ruled that executive secretaries were part of the
bargaining unit of rank-and-file employees. The Union filed a motion for execution
which Metrolab opposed. Metrolab argued that executive secretaries of the General
Manager and the executive secretaries of the Quality Assurance Manager, Product
Development Manager, Finance Director, Management System Manager, Human
Resources Manager, Marketing Director, Engineering Manager, Materials Manager and
Production Manager, who were all members of the company's Management
Committee, should not only be exempted from the closed-shop provision but should
also be excluded from membership in the bargaining unit of the rank-and-file
employees because those executive secretaries were confidential employees, having
access to "vital labor information."

Issue: Whether or not executive secretaries must be included as part of the bargaining
unit of rank and file employees.

Ruling: No. Although Article 245 of the Labor Code limits the ineligibility to join,
form, and assist any labor organization to managerial employees, jurisprudence has
extended this prohibition to confidential employees or those who by reason of their
positions or nature of work are required to assist or act in a fiduciary manner to
managerial employees and, hence, are likewise privy to sensitive and highly
confidential records. The executive secretaries of General Manager and the
Management Committees should not only be exempted from the closed-shop provision
but should not be permitted to join in the bargaining unit of the rank and file employees
as well as on the grounds that the executive secretaries are confidential employees ,
having access to “vital labor information”. Excluding confidential employees from the
rank-and-file bargaining unit, therefore, is not tantamount to discrimination.