RE: LABOR PROTECTION CLAUSE

A. RIGHT TO SELF ORGANIZATION

Labor Organization: union/association of employees for purposes of
1. Collective bargaining OR
2. Dealing with the ER concerning terms and condition of employment (Art.
212[g])

Collective Bargaining Dealing with ER
Right acquired after reg. and
recognition or certification by
DOLE as Exclusive Bargaining
Rep. of EEs
Generic description of
interaction between ER and EE
concerning terms and conditions
of EMP

- Entitled to protection, registered or unregistered, BUT unregistered
LO does not have the right to represent its members bec. It is has no
legal personality

Legitimate LO: registered or reported with DOLE
Union: organized for collective bargaining and for other legitimate purposes
Workers Association: for mutual aid and protection of members or for any
legitimate purpose other than CB
Legitimate WO: registered with Bureau of Relations of DOLE

Coverage of Right to SO
1. For Collective Bargaining purposes
a. EEs in commercial, industrial, agricultural enterprises
b. EEs of non-profit institutions (i.e., religious, charitable, medical and
educational)
c. EEs of GOCCs without original charters
2. For mutual aid and protection
a. Ambulant, intermittent and itinerant workers
b. Self-employed
c. Rural workers
d. No definite ERs
3. EEs who are not members or co-owners of cooperatives
4. Other EEs in the civil service
- Right to form associations for purposes not contrary to law
5. Alien EEs with valid working permits
- Nationals of a country granting same or similar rights to Filipino
workers, as certified by DFA, or has ratified ILO Convention 87 and
98
6. Working children
7. Homeworkers
8. EEs of contractors and sub-contractors

Excluded from coverage of right to SO
1. Managerial EEs
a. Policy-making or managerial
b. Highly confidential or highly technical
EXC: Supervisors may organize but cannot form, join or assist a rank-and-
file union
2. Confidential EEs
3. Employee-members of cooperatives
EXC: may form an association for mutual aid and protection
4. Religious Objectors (INC)
- Cannot be compelled or coerced to join LU even if there is a closed
shop agreement with ERs
- Can form their own union
5. AFP members, police officers, policemen, firemen and jail guards
6. High-level or managerial govt EEs with policy making or managerial
functions or highly confidential duties
7. EEs of international organization with immunities
8. Non-EEs
9. Government EEs including GOCCs with original charter
10. Aliens without valid working permits

Government EEs Right to organize
- Right to organize and negotiate but not the right to strike
- Right to SO not for purposes of collective bargaining but simply for
furtherance of protection of interests
- Limited right to deal and negotiate with ERS
1. Cannot negotiate terms and conditions of EMP fixed by law
2. Cannot negotiate matters that require appropriation of funds
3. Cannot negotiate those that involve exercise of management
prerogatives

ART. 246, LC: Non-abridgment of right to self-organization
- Unlawful to restrain, coerce, discriminate against or unduly interfere with
this right.
- If abridged at the workplace, ULP

2 rights:
1. Form, join or assist LO for representation and collective bargaining
2. Engage in lawful concerted activities

B. RIGHT TO COLLECTIVE BARGAINING AND NEGOTIATIONS

When Duty to Bargain exists:
1. There is no CBA
- Mutual obligation of ER and EBR to meet and convene promptly,
expeditiously and in GF
2. Where a CBA exists
- neither party shall terminate nor modify such agreement during its
lifetime but can serve a written notice to terminate or modify the same at
least 60 days prior to expiration date
- duty of both parties to keep the status quo within the 60-day period or
until a new agreement is reached (automatic renewal or extension of CBA

Collective Bargaining Agreement: contract executed upon request of either ER
or the EBR of the EEs incorporating the agreement reached after negotiations
with respect to terms and conditions of EMP, including proposals for adjusting
any grievances or questions under such agreement

Terms of CBA
1. Representation: 5 years
2. Other provisions: 3 years

4 processes
1. Negotiation concerning terms and conditions of EMP
2. Execution of a written contract
3. Negotiation of any question arising from interpretation or application of
contract
4. Negotiation over terms of a new contract or proposed modifications

Jurisdictional Preconditions
1. ER-EE relationship
2. Possession of status of majority representation
3. Proof of majority
4. Demand to bargain

NOTE: bargaining with minority, ULP

When bargaining should begin
- Within 12 months after determination and certification of ERs EBR
(certification year)

4 Forms of ULP in CB
1. Failure/refusal to meet and convene
2. Evading mandatory subjects of bargaining
3. Bargaining in BF
4. Gross violation of CBA

C. RIGHT TO ENGAGE IN PEACEFUL CONCERTED ACTIVITIES
- For purposes of CB or for mutual aid and protection

Concerted activity undertaken by two or more EEs, or by one on behalf of
others
1. Strike
2. Picketing
3. Collective Letter
4. Publicity
5. Placards and Banners
6. Wearing of Armbands
7. Speeches, Music and Broadcasts
8. Boycott
9. Slowdown

Strike
- cessation of work by EEs to get more favorable terms for themselves, or a
concerted refusal by EEs to do any work for their ER or to work at their
customary rate of speed, until the object of the strike is attained by the
satisfaction of the demanded concession
- temporary stoppage of work by the concerted action of EEs as a result of
industrial or labor dispute

When legally held
1. CB deadlock
2. ULP by ER

Protection of Strike
1. Generally not subject to labor injunction or restraining order
EXC: directed against illegal acts committed during the strike;
national interest cases
2. EEs cannot be discriminated against merely because they exercised
right to strike
3. Prohibition on use of strike-breakers
4. Mere participation in a strike does not sever the employment
relationship

Strike-breaker: person who obstructs, impedes or interferes with by
force, coercion, threats or intimidation any peaceful picketing or exercise
of SO or CB

Illegal strike
1. Contrary to a statutory prohibition
Eg. Strike by government EEs
2. Violates a procedural requirement in law
Eg. Filing a notice to strike
3. Unlawful purpose
Eg. Induce ER to commit ULP against non-union EEs
4. Unlawful means
Eg. Widespread terrorism of non-strikers
5. Declared in violation of an existing injunction
6. Contrary to an existing agreement
Eg. No-strike clause

Picketing: presence of striking workers who pace back and forth before the
place of business of ER to persuade peacefully other workers not to work in the
establishment and costumers not to do business there

Boycott: confederation of many persons with intent to injure another by
preventing any person from doing business with him, through fear of incurring
the displeasure, persecution and vengeance of the conspirators

Slowdown: EEs, without seeking a complete stoppage of work, retard
production to compel compliance by the ER with the labor demands made
upon him

D. RIGHT TO SECURITY OF TENURE

Security of tenure: ER shall not terminate the services of an EE except for a just
cause or when authorized by the Code

E. PRINCIPLE OF SHARED RESPONSIBILITY
- Balancing the rights of ER and EE
- Labor and capital are interdependent, both sectors need each other
- Balance in favor of labor should be tilted without being blind to the
concomitant right of the ER to protection of his property

F. PREFERENTIAL USE OF VOLUNTARY MODES OF SETTLING DISPUTES
Grievance Machinery: mechanism for the adjustment and resolution of
grievances arising from the interpretation or implementation of a CBA and
those arising from the interpretation or enforcement of company personnel
policies

Arbitration: reference or submission of a labor dispute to an impartial third
person for determination on the basis of evidence and arguments presented by
the parties

1. Voluntary Arbitration: Parties select a competent, trained and impartial
third person tasked to decide on the merits of the case and whose
decision is final and executory
2. Involuntary Arbitration: parties are compelled by the government to
forego their right to strike and are compelled to accept the resolution of
their dispute

RE: RELATED LAWS

A. CIVIL CODE
- Describes the nature of labor-management relations

Art. 1700, CC: relations between labor and capital are not merely contractual
but impressed with public interest. Thus, labor contracts must yield to the
common good and are subject to special laws

Art. 1701: Neither capital nor labor shall act oppressively against the other, or
impair the interest or convenience of the public

Art. 1703: Prohibition on contracts amounting to involuntary servitude

Other provisions:
- Wages, househelpers and injuries sustained by EEs
- Awards of damages
- Interpretation of CBA
- Validity of a waiver
- Preference of workers claims
- Fixed-period employment

B. REVISED PENAL CODE
- Apply to all human interactions, whether persons involved are ERs, EEs or
otherwise

Art. 289, RPC: use of violence or threats by either ER or EE

C. SPECIAL LAWS
SSS Law
GSIS Law
Agrarian Reform Law
13
th
-month pay
Magna Carta for Public Health Workers

II. BASIC CONCEPTS, PRINCIPLES AND FUNDAMENTAL POLICIES

A. LABOR, LABOR LAWS AND SOCIAL LEGISLATION
Labor: physical toil, including application of skill

Work: broader than labor; all forms of physical or mental exertion or both, to
attain some object other than recreation or amusement per se

Employee: Salaried person working for another who controls or supervises the
means, manner and method of doing the work

Workers: broader than EEs; self-employed people and those working in the
service and under the control of another, regardless of rank, title or nature of
work

Labor legislation: statutes, regulations and jurisprudence governing relations
between capital and labor, providing certain EMP standards and a legal
framework for negotiating, adjusting and administering those standards and
other incidents of EMP

1. Labor Standards
- Minimum requirements prescribed by laws, rules and regulations on
the conditions and benefits of EMP that ERs must provide and
comply with and to which EEs are entitled to as a matter of legal
right
2. Labor relations
- Interaction between ER and EEs or their representatives and
mechanism by which the standards and other terms and conditions
of EMP are negotiated, adjusted and enforced
- Defines status, rights and duties, and institutional mechanisms that
govern the individual and collective interactions of ERs, EEs or their
representatives

Social Legislation: laws that provide particular kinds of protection or benefits
to society or segments thereof in furtherance of SJ
- While Labor laws directly affect employment, social legislation governs
effects of employment
- Labor laws are social legislation but not all social legislations are labor law

Basis or Foundation of Labor Laws: Police Power
- Power of the State to enact laws within constitutional limits to promote
the order, safety, health, morals and general welfare of the society
- State authority to enact legislation that may interfere with personal
liberty or property to promote the general welfare

Objectives of Labor Laws
- Devices for social equity
- Address issues concerning EMP, protection to labor and labor-
management relations

Applicability of the Labor Code
GR: all workers, agricultural or non-agricultural
EXC:
1. GOCC with original charter (chartered by special law)
2. Government agencies and instrumentalities

NOTE: Labor Code may apply even if parties are not ERs and EEs of each other
Ex: indirect ERs liability, illegal recruitment

B. SOCIAL JUSTICE
Social Justice: justification of labor laws; humanization of laws and equalization
of social and economic forces; promotion of the welfare of the people

1. As a Juridical Principle: prescribes equality of the people before the law
2. As a goal: attainment of decent quality of life through humane productive
efforts