HAWAIIAN-PHILIPPINE COMPANY vs. REYNALDO J. GULMATICO G.R. No.

106231, November
16, 1994

FACTS:

The National Federation of Sugar Workers-Food and General Trades (NFSW-

FGT) claimed that the sugar farm workers within petitioner’s milling district have never availed of the ben
efits due them under the law.

Petitioner contends that the complaint filed against it cannot be categorized under any of the cases falling
within the jurisdiction of the Labor Arbiter as enumerated in Article 217 of the Labor Code, as amended, c
onsidering that no employer-
employee relationship exists between petitioner milling company and the farm workers represented by res
pondent union.

ISSUE:

Whether or not the Labor Arbiter has jurisdiction over a case wherein no employer-
employee relationship exists between the company and the farm workers.

HELD:

While the jurisdiction over controversies involving agricultural workers has been transfe
rred from the Court of Agrarian Relations to the Labor Arbiters under the Labor Code as
amended, the said transferred jurisdiction is however, not without limitations. The disp
ute or controversy must still fall under one of the cases enumerated under Article 217 of
the Labor Code, which cases, arise out of or are in connection with an employer-
employee relationship.

In the case at bar, it is clear that there is no employer-

employee relationship between petitioner milling company and respondent union and/o
r its members-
workers, a fact which, the Solicitor General notes, public respondent did not dispute or
was silent about. Absent the jurisdictional requisite of an employer-
employee relationship between petitioner and private respondent, the inevitable conclus
ion is that public respondent is without jurisdiction to hear and decide the case with res
pect to petitioner.