Case Digest (G.R. No. 241437)
Facts:
Albay Electric Cooperative, Inc. (ALECO) v. ALECO Labor Employees Organization (ALEO), G.R. No. 241437, September 14, 2020, Supreme Court First Division, Caguioa, J., writing for the Court.
ALECO is a provincial electric cooperative; ALEO is its employees’ certified bargaining agent. By March 2012 ALECO faced severe financial distress with large payables and long-term obligations. Management promoted Private Sector Participation (PSP) as its rehabilitation plan, which required employees to tender courtesy resignations with separation pay and possible rehiring; ALEO preferred a Cooperative-to-Cooperative (C2C) scheme and expressed grievances in April 2013. ALEO sought preventive mediation and later conducted strike votes in May 2013; despite a September 14, 2013 referendum favoring PSP and the award of a concession to San Miguel Power, ALEO went on strike on September 23, 2013. ALECO issued Notices of Retrenchment on October 23, 2013.
By letter dated January 7, 2014, ALECO (through its interim board) formally asked the Secretary of Labor to assume jurisdiction; ALEO concurred. The Secretary of Labor assumed jurisdiction on January 10, 2014 and issued a Return-to-Work Order directing striking employees who had not accepted separation benefits to return to work and the employer to readmit them under pre-strike terms and conditions.
In a Resolution dated April 29, 2016 the Secretary of Labor found the retrenchment valid but ordered ALECO to pay accrued backwages and other benefits reckoned from January 10, 2014 until finality of that Resolution, and to pay separation benefits under the collective bargaining agreement (CBA). Motions for reconsideration were denied on December 2, 2016. ALECO filed a Rule 65 petition for certiorari before the Court of Appeals (CA) challenging the April 29, 2016 Resolution; meanwhile execution proceedings led the Secretary of Labor to issue a January 17, 2018 Resolution directing execution of the April 29, 2016 award but limiting backwages and benefits to the period January 10, 2014 to December 19, 2016 and approving the sheriff’s computation for 78 employees.
The CA, in CA‑G.R. SP No. 149409, issued a Decision dated August 10, 2018 affirming the Secretary’s April 29, 2016 and December 2, 2016 Resolutions but modifying the computation of backwages: it fixed the period for backwages from January 10, 2014 (the Return‑to‑Work Order date) up to April 29, 2016 (the date of the Sec...(Pro-only)
Issues:
- Whether ALECO may assail the January 17, 2018 Resolution of the Secretary of Labor through the present Petition, and if so:
- Whether ALEO can still challenge the validity of the retrenchment and renew its claims for damages and attorney’s fees.
- Whether the Court of Appeals erred in sustaining the Secretary of Labor’s award of backwages.
- Whether the Court of Appeals er...(Pro-only)
Ruling:
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Ratio:
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Doctrine:
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