Rulings:

Standard Charter Case

1. Bank Cashiers, Accounting Personnel and radio operators are confidential employees;
2. No employee should be placed in an acting capacity for more than one month without
corresponding adjustment of salary;
3. Judicial review of labor cases does not go so far as to evaluate the sufficiency of evidence on
which the labor official’s findings rest.

Benguet Electric Cooperative, Inc. vs. Ferrer-Calleja 180 SCRA 740 , December 29, 1989

1. The right to collective bargaining is not available to an employee of a cooperative who at the
same time is a member and co-owner thereof; Employees who are neither members nor co-
owners of the cooperative are entitled to exercise the rights to self-organization, collective
bargaining and negotiation.
2. The fact that the members-employees of the cooperative do not participate in its actual
management does not make them, eligible to form, assist or join a labor organization; It is the
fact of ownership of the cooperative, not involvement in management, which disqualifies a
member from joining any labor organization within the cooperative.

Victoriano vs. Elizalde Rope Workers’ Union, 59 SCRA 54, September 12, 1974

1. There is a presumption of constitutionality in statutes.

2. An employee has the right to join or not join a labor union;
3. members of said religious sects cannot be compelled or coerced to join labor unions even when
said unions have closed shop agreements with the employers; that in spite of any closed shop
agreement, members of said religious sects cannot be refused employment or dismissed from
their jobs on the sole ground that they are not members of the collective bargaining union.
4. Prohibition against impairment of contracts is not absolute…it prohibits unreasonable
impairment only…Otherwise, important and valuable reforms may be precluded by the simple
device of entering into contracts.
5. Test for determining whether statute violates the impairment-of-contract clause is determined
upon its own circumstances.
6. Freedom of religion takes precedence over the right against the impairment of contracts.

Kapatiran sa Meat and Canning Division vs. Ferrer-Calleja 162 SCRA 367 , June 20, 1988

1. The right of members of the Iglesia ni Kristo sect not to join a labor union for being contrary to
their religious beliefs does not bar the members of that sect from forming their own union.

Page 1 of 4
Metrolab Industries, Inc. vs. Roldan-Confesor 254 SCRA 182 , February 28, 1996

1. Prohibition to join labor organization extends 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;

Philips Industrial Development, Inc. vs. NLRC, 210 SCRA 339, June 25, 1992

1. Guards are allowed to form or join a union

Davao Integrated Port Stevedoring Services vs. Abarquez, 220 SCRA 197, March 19, 1993

1. CBA DEFINED - refers to a contract executed upon request of either the employer or the
exclusive bargaining representative incorporating the agreement reached after negotiations
with respect to wages, hours of work and all other terms and conditions of employment,
including proposals for adjusting any grievances or questions arising under such agreement.
2. CBA not an ordinary contract.
3. An employer may not unilaterally withdraw benefits enjoyed for a long time by its employees.
4. Voluntary arbitrator may order grant of benefits as part of his authority to interpret a CBA.

Kiok Loy vs. NLRC 141 SCRA 179 , January 22, 1986

1. jurisdictional preconditions for CBA – (1) possession of the status of majority representation of
the employees’ representative in accordance with any of the means of selection or designation
provided for by the Labor Code; (2) proof of majority representation; and (3) a demand to
bargain under Article 251, par. (a) of the New Labor Code .
2. Company’s refusal to make counter-proposal to the union’s proposed collective bargaining
agreement, an indication of its bad faith
3. Unfair labor practice is committed when it is shown that the respondent employer, after having
been served with a written bargaining proposal by the petitioning Union, did not even bother to
submit an answer or reply to the said proposal.

Associated Trade Unions (ATU) vs. Trajano 162 SCRA 318 , June 20, 1988

1. the consent requirement for a petition for certification election applies only to unorganized
establishments and has been reduced to only 20%.;
2. Collective Bargaining Agreement: Contract-Bar Rule; The rule prohibits the filing of a petition for
certification election during the existence of a CBA except within the freedom period of 60 days.
3. Mandatory requirement of a sworn statement of the union secretary, attested by the union
President that the CBA had been duly posted and ratified. - non-compliance therewith rendered
the said CBA ineffective

Page 2 of 4
National Congress of Unions in the Sugar Industry of the Philippines vs. Trajano 208 SCRA 18 , April 10,
1992

Topic: Deadlock Bar Rule

1. The clear mandate of the aforequoted section is that a petition for certification election may be
filed at any time, in the absence of a collective bargaining agreement. Otherwise put, the rule
prohibits the filing of a petition for certification election in the following cases: (1) during the
existence of a collective bargaining agreement except within the freedom period; (2) within one
(1) year from the date of issuance of declaration of a final certification election result; or (3)
during the existence of a bargaining deadlock to which an incumbent or certified bargaining
agent is a party and which had been submitted to conciliation or arbitration or had become the
subject of a valid notice of strike or lockout. The Deadlock Bar Rule simply provides that a
petition for certification election can only be entertained if there is no pending bargaining
deadlock submitted to conciliation or arbitration or had become the subject of a valid notice of
strike or lockout.

General Maritime Stevedores' Union of the Philippines,et al., vs. South Sea Shipping Line, et al. 108
Phil. 1112 , July 26, 1960

Topic: Substitutionary Doctrine

1. Where the bargaining contract is to run for more than two years, the principle of substitution
may well be adopted and enforced by the CIR to the effect that after two years of the life of
bargaining agreement, a certification election may be allowed by the CIR; and that if a
bargaining agent other than the union or organization that executed the contract is elected, said
new agent would have to respect said contract but that it may bargain with the management for
the shortening of the life of the contract if it considers it too long, or refuse to renew the
contract pursuant to an automatic renewal clause.

Benguet Consolidated, Inc. vs. BCI Employees & Workers Union-PAFLU 23 SCRA 465 , April 30, 1968

Topic: Substitutionary Doctrine

1. Labor law; “Principle of substitution”, meaning of.—The principle of substitution… means that
where there occurs a shift in employees’ union allegiance after the execution of a collective
bargaining contract with their employer, the employees can change their labor union, but the
collective bargaining contract which in still subsisting, continues to bind the employees up to its
expiration date. They may, however, bargain for the shortening of said expiration date.

Page 3 of 4
BASIC/ COMMON UNION SECURITY AGREEMENTS

A closed-shop agreement is an agreement whereby an employer binds himself to hire only members of
the contracting union who must continue to remain members in good standing to keep their jobs.

Union Shop agreement There is union shop when all new regular employees are required to join the
union within a certain period as a condition for their continued employment.

There is maintenance of membership shop when employees, who are union members as of the
effective date of the agreement, or who thereafter become members, must maintain union membership
as a condition for continued employment until they are promoted or transferred out of the bargaining
unit or the agreement is terminated.

Page 4 of 4