Case Digest (G.R. No. 94929-30)
Facts:
Port Workers Union of the Philippines (PWUP) v. The Honorable Undersecretary of Labor and Employment Bienvenido E. Laguesma, Atty. Anastacio L. Bactin, Med-Arbiter NCR-DOLE, Public Respondents; International Container Terminal Services, Inc. (ICTSI) and Associated Port Checkers and Workers Union (APCWU), Private Respondents; Sandigan ng Manggagawa sa Daungan (SAMADA) and Port Employees Association and Labor Union (PEALU), Nominal Private Respondents, G.R. Nos. 94929-30, March 18, 1992, First Division, Cruz, J., writing for the Court.The dispute arose as the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) between ICTSI and the incumbent union APCWU neared expiration on April 14, 1990. On March 14, 1990, SAMADA filed a verified petition for a certification election to determine the workers' collective bargaining representative; the written consent signatures purporting to constitute at least 25% of the bargaining unit were submitted on March 26, 1990 (eleven days after filing). On April 2, 1990, PWUP filed a petition for intervention in that proceeding. PEALU thereafter filed its own petition on April 6, 1990, and submitted consent signatures on May 11, 1990 (thirty-five days after filing). The SAMADA and PEALU petitions were consolidated.
APCWU moved to dismiss the consolidated petitions for failure to comply with Section 6, Rule V, Book V of the Implementing Rules of the Labor Code, which required that when a petition is filed within the last sixty days of a CBA the petition must be "supported by the written consent of at least twenty-five percent (25%) of all the employees in the bargaining unit" and that the 25% requirement "shall be satisfied upon the filing of the petition, otherwise the petition shall be dismissed." The Med-Arbiter dismissed the consolidated petitions in an order dated June 5, 1990. PWUP alone appealed to the Secretary of Labor on June 28, 1990, arguing that Article 256 of the Labor Code does not require the written consent to be submitted simultaneously with the petition. The principal petitioners (SAMADA, PEALU) did not appeal. On August 21, 1990, DOLE Undersecretary Bienvenido Laguesma affirmed the Med-Arbiter's dismissal.
After the administrative dismissals, ICTSI and APCWU negotiated a new CBA, concluded on September 28, 1990, ratified on October 7, 1990 by a majority of the workers (910 of 1,223), and registered with DOLE. PWUP sought relief from the Court, alleging grave abuse of discretion by the public respondents in applying Article 256 and the implementing regulation to dismiss the petitions. The Solicitor General filed a Comment supporting liberal application of Arti...(Subscriber-Only)
Issues:
- Did PWUP have personality/standing to pursue the representation question as an intervenor despite not submitting 25% consent signatures with its motion to intervene?
- Was the dismissal of the petitions for certification election proper because the 25% consent signatures were not submitted simultaneously with the filing, i.e., does Article 256 and its implementing rule require contemporaneous submission?
- Did the ratification of the new CBA by a majority of the workers render the representation issue moot and bar a certification election under the contract‑bar rule?
- Are decisions of the Secretary of Labor in certification ...(Subscriber-Only)
Ruling:
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Ratio:
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Doctrine:
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